Post a response to this discussion thread
Well, I'm not surprised, but hopefully it's now clear that it was the Republican chickenhawks who sold the invasion of Iraq as a cost-free little bit of imperialism, to be paid for out of oil revenues. Unfortunately, reports on the ground in Iraq indicate that the country (let alone the region) is not becoming more stable, as formerly promised:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3927768
Refereeing in Hell
GIs are dying. Rival factions are turning on each other.
After freeing Iraq, can we keep it from coming apart?
By Babak Dehghanpisheh
Newsweek
* * *
The sneak attacks keep coming—against both Iraqi civilians and Coalition forces. Last week's deadliest incident was the crash of a U.S. medical helicopter near Fallujah, killing all nine aboard. Witnesses said the Black Hawk was brought down by ground fire. Military spokesmen said an investigation was underway. Tuesday marks one month to the day of the capture of Saddam Hussein, humiliated and feeble, and Bush aides insist these are the death throes of the insurgency. And after more than 200 U.S. military deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom, one more tragic attack can hardly alter the Pentagon's plans. Coalition control over Iraq's destiny—and its fractious ethnic and religious factions—is scheduled to end in less than six months, when the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) transfers power to an elected Iraqi leadership and disbands.
_______________________________
In answer to the question posed in the subhead to the article, I have to say that I'm not sanguine about the likelihood of keeping Iraq from degenerating into a fractious, fragmented state thirsting for a new strong man to seize power, one who might be even worse than the bad, bad man who was so expensively and recently removed.
Also, the track record for the man at the putative top of this administration for staying with a difficult project isn't very good -- after all, he basically went broke twice trying to run an oil business in Texas. If it hadn't been for Daddy and his cronies bailing him out time after time, Lil George just might have remained at his level of incompetence. Unfortunately, now we have thousands and thousands more dead to tot up on the ledger of our country's disastrous meddling in Iraq's affairs over the last 40 years, and the prospects for the next 10 years don't look so very good, either.
Post a response to this discussion thread