On manicures and spreadin' democracy.
Bush administration officials now admit that Iraqi government’s original plan to rein in the violence in Baghdad, announced in June, has failed. The Pentagon has decided to rush more American troops into the capital, and the new military operation to restore security there is expected to begin in earnest next month.
Yet some outside experts who have recently visited the White House said Bush administration officials were beginning to plan for the possibility that Iraq’s democratically elected government might not survive.
“Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy,” said one military affairs expert who received an Iraq briefing at the White House last month and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity.
“Everybody in the administration is being quite circumspect,” the expert said, “but you can sense their own concern that this is drifting away from democracy.”
Not that I'm bitter or anything.
posted by Logic101 at 8/17/2006 09:27:00 AM
2 Comments:
Think of all the efforts Iraq has made to create their fledgling democracy, how much death, how many show up to vote despite the risk, how many line up day after day to join the police force despite suicide bombers targeting them every day... Now just THINK of how tremendous Iraq's chances for success might have been if the world would have helped... How much better off/stable/sane the Middle East in general would likely have been at this point... UN? Bah! Europe? Bah! Allies my ass, cowards and appeaserswho would rather stick their heads in the sand then make an actuall effort, expend some amount of energy, lives, money or anything else for that matter to make a real, important, lasting change in their world.
So sad.
Well, senor cheeseburger, I have had many such discussions with my brother over a beer on the back deck since 2002. It was always a great idea in theory, to remake Iraq in our own image. I actually would like to remake the whole population of the US over in my image although generally I don't speak that outloud because it sounds a bit vain and egotistical. But I digress...
I think the ingredients required to translate the Iraq makeover theory into reality were not present. I argued vehemently with my brother that exactly THIS would happen -- it was inevitable. An oppressed people will seek first to express their natural identity, and if their natural identity is not "Iraqi" first, then we're going to have issues. You can blame our allies if you wish (I vaguely recall a Coalition of the Willing, whatever happened to them? they were so famous for awhile), you can blame Powell for failing to deliver the allies, you can blame Rumsfeld for his crappy planning, you can blame the military for its execution (I wouldn't but some might). The fact of the matter is that it was a faulty theory to begin with.
Coulda, shoulda, woulda... yeah, it would have been grand if reality had not screwed up a perfectly good theory.
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