We were warned -- "You break it, you bought it."
Geno
184 Posts
Even as President Bush continues his "almost comic-book depiction of the conflict in Iraq as an us-versus-the-evil-terrorists adventure," the truth is that the situation in Iraq has deteriorated past the tipping-point on the road to almost certain civil war. As the efforts to draft a constitution come to a precarious and uncertain conclusion, just below the surface are three factions with diametrically opposed self-interests already positioning themselves for the inevitable hostilities -- with the growing and undeniable reality that the U.S. military’s ability to affect outcomes in Iraq will (if it hasn’t already) soon be marginalized. Ironically, while our soldiers will still be in harms way, it will no longer be about us.
Any serious student of history could have predicted on the lead up to this war, (and many did) that like it or not, we would eventually leave Iraq under less than admirable circumstances – fast-forward in time and our options at this point are few and are all void of the lofty goals we promised ourselves at the outset – proving once again that some of the worst lies we will ever hear are the ones we tell ourselves.
We could hunker down into a purely defensive position and watch the conflagration from the Green Zone – oh, that’s right, that’s essentially what we are doing now. We could choose sides in the conflict -- or worse yet, attempt to play referee in the middle of the impending triad of Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish violence – neither of which holds up all too intellectually-well against the platitude of spreading democracy in the middle east which, if you remember, is the Bush administration’s most recent (in a long list) of rationales for our being there in the first place.
As support for this ill-advised fool's errand wanes, we will probably witness some version of Vietnam-era Republican senator George Aiken’s advice to “just declare victory and leave.” While such a solution would be as humiliating as it would be a transparent admission of failure, given Bush and company’s proclivity for a style-over-substance approach to problem solving it is squarely where I am placing my bet.
Geno
Any serious student of history could have predicted on the lead up to this war, (and many did) that like it or not, we would eventually leave Iraq under less than admirable circumstances – fast-forward in time and our options at this point are few and are all void of the lofty goals we promised ourselves at the outset – proving once again that some of the worst lies we will ever hear are the ones we tell ourselves.
We could hunker down into a purely defensive position and watch the conflagration from the Green Zone – oh, that’s right, that’s essentially what we are doing now. We could choose sides in the conflict -- or worse yet, attempt to play referee in the middle of the impending triad of Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish violence – neither of which holds up all too intellectually-well against the platitude of spreading democracy in the middle east which, if you remember, is the Bush administration’s most recent (in a long list) of rationales for our being there in the first place.
As support for this ill-advised fool's errand wanes, we will probably witness some version of Vietnam-era Republican senator George Aiken’s advice to “just declare victory and leave.” While such a solution would be as humiliating as it would be a transparent admission of failure, given Bush and company’s proclivity for a style-over-substance approach to problem solving it is squarely where I am placing my bet.
Geno
Comments
Your observations represent great historical evidence from an Iraqi nationalist’s perspective that the mighty U.S. military machine need not be assumed the victor in this or any other conflict. This is not a David and Goliath tale. My point/prediction was that the original U.S. military goals in Iraq will soon become marginalized by what appears to be inevitable civil war and that once started, the U.S. military’s primary mission (successful or not, you be the judge)will become eclipsed by a new and even bloodier reality.
Geno
And many spilled their blood and continue to do so to ensure that right for you.
Fool's errand, indeed!
When you consider that support for Bush's handling of the war - among the American people - is at something like 38%, he has to finally take off the rose colored glasses and see the folly involved in pouring more money into this lost cause.
Let 'em get their constitution in place (provided they can agree on what time it is, let alone a charter) and get the he** outta Dodge!!!
I think the plan is to get them self-governing, able to protect themselves and then leave. Is that what you were suggesting, or is it to leave while they are in the next step in a critical process and most in need of our help?
I have noticed that the support for Bush and the war has dwindled somewhat. I have experienced doubts myself, but usually right after a news story. I, like most people, am influenced by what I see in the news every night.
Still, I frequently hear through the grapevine that most of the people of Iraq are glad we are there and grateful for our help...as long as we keep our promise to leave as soon as possible.
If this is true and was put on the news every night instead of constant stories about protestors who have lost their sons over there, I wonder what Bush's support numbers would be then? I suspect they would be much higher.
Personally, I don't think the American people have the stomach for another four years of this - nor do we have the economic strength to be able to tolerate it.
He goes on to say that most people have not grasped commerce. Most fundamentalist Muslims still consider any form of interest as being usury and have not embraced the cyle of debt and capital.
He ends the article by saying that although "Fallujah doesn't rival Jamaica as a vacation resort progress has been made. Last year at this time it was the epicenter of Iraq terrorism. If progress can be made there, it can be made anywhere in Iraq. Don't listen to the "quagmire" crowd. This war is being won."
I don't have the answers to any of this, I do know that most of us have no idea what it's truly like over there.
Has anyone watched the new show on FX titled "Over There"? I know it's TV, but it puts things in perspective.
Read the letter I posted. It is the real story from one of my employees. It is the view from the PEOPLE THAT ARE THERE TRYING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Not from an airhead on CNN or an HR Director behind his desk.
The simple fact is that Americans, for the most part, do not have the patience for or tolerance level for extended exercises like war and climbing gasoline prices. We have become assuaged into a mindset of expecting wars that last two weeks or that get handled from the air or by a quick 'sweep, destroy, conquer and get out' mentality with a hip-hip-hooray of only 37 casualties.
Current and future wars will not be won by the most massive army, the most invisible airplane or the loudest exploding device. We better be about the business of protecting our food and water supply, defending our borders and discovering something that will sniff-out things that go boom and melt people in busses.
There will not be any more airplanes crashing into buildings. There will not be more subway bombings and we are farting in whirlwinds trying to predict who will shoot off the first nuclear device 7000 miles away.
The enemies of western civilization, religious diversity and unrestrained capitalism are already years into the business of figuring out how to poison our food systems, make our water table unusable, take over our highway trucking systems, cripple our communications capabilities and let loose our criminal population to crack our own heads. The enemy will only sit back thousands of miles off and watch it happen.
The real tragedy is that we welcomed them with open arms for the past 40 years, educated them at our universities on free scholarships, trained them in the things it will take to destroy and annihilate us and sponsored them in setting up business in their countries of origin. All in the name of diversity, loving thy brother and charity.
In the long run, perhaps sooner than any of us expects, it will not matter one whit whether you live in Mississippi or Oregon or whether you dance to a liberal or a conservative mantra or whether you favor or disfavor abortion or make nine bucks an hour or $97,000 annually. We are all targeted for extinction simply because of who we are, where we are and what our history has been.
"One World Order" is on the horizon. But, we will not be participants.