Wednesday, April 07, 2004
TIME'S UP: LOGIC OF LIBERATION IS NOW THE LOGIC OF OCCUPATION
Almost exactly one year after our "liberation" of Iraq from Sadaam Hussein, the majority sentiment in Iraq is definitely shifting away from a feeling of liberation to one of resentment of the American occupation. Instability and insurgency is erupting all across Iraq as both Sunni and Shiite populations take arms against the American forces.
Uprising: At Word of U.S. Foray, a Baghdad Militia Erupts
Basically - time's up. We've lost. There is really no hope now of instituting some kind of Western-valued, pro-America shining example of Democracy in Iraq. There's nothing to do now but slog through a long and turtuous attempt to stabilize the region, and fend off the increasing waves of anti-Western world-wide terrorism that's bound to come. How did it come to this? How did we loose this war for the hearts and minds of Iraqis in only a year? How is that it only took a year for the U.S. to institute itself into an intractable logic of occupation and terrorism that is coming more and more to be a mirror of the Palestinian/Isreali situation?
Let's count all the mistakes the Bush White House has made on this, starting at the beginning:
1. Manufactured intelligence to create a false motive for war - thus alienating alienating allies, pro-Western Arab regemes, and any American with half a brain enough to follow the news. We thought arms for hostages was bad, but for this alone, Bush should be impeached.
2. No international backing for the war - thus, an "illegitimate" war that sets up America as the prime target for hostilities. If we hadn't manufactured the intelligence and alienated our allies (on issues ranging from Kyoto to the Palestinian/Isreali conflict), we might have actually built an international coalition to "take down" Saddam's government.
3. No understanding of Arab mentality by anyone in the Bush White House, thus completely mishandling Arab nationalism, customs, pride, emotionalism, and centuries of Western love/hate resentment. Thus, the same person can go from tossing flowers to hand grenades in a year with just a few symbolic injuries to his pride, while no instructions or sensitivity training is given to the "liberating" forces (and no inclusion of Arab forces to help with this).
4. Points 2 and 3 above only excacerbate this point - which is, no planning whatsoever for a post-Saddam Iraq, including: a) not enough ground troups to maintain security post Saddam; b) focus on hunting for the fictional WMD's rather than on immediately improving the lot of the "liberated" people; c) no sense of concern or care for sacred/precious items, including artifacts, religious sites, etc.; d) no pre-planned Internationally backed judicial system that could be immediately implemented to arbitrate disputes and regulate behavior while being accepted as legitimate by most Iraqis; e) not enough Arab and international troups to give the Iraqi's a sense of being liberated rather than occupied by Americans (and, to a lesser extent, British).
5. Then, when all goes wrong in points 2 through 4, what do the Bushies do? Do they try to rectify the situation? No, they do what they do best: stonewall, misdirect, and play hardball politics. So, no opportunity to implement any corrections to their misguided course - instead, they just make matters worse and worse, until some brilliant dope gets it into his head that the best and shiniest example of how to build a democracy is to close down a beloved newspaper.
Now, if only this had been done with half a brain, we probably actually could have 1) made the world safer and 2) created some kind of fledging Arab religious democracy, in the mold of Isreal and 3) saved about 200 billion dollars in the process.
Who put these dopes in charge of the world? Oh, yea, that's right - our activist/conservative Supreme Court did.....(same Court that said it was no longer consitutional to bang down the doors of gay people and arrest them for being gay. Hmmm....well, I guess they do have SOME standards....)
Almost exactly one year after our "liberation" of Iraq from Sadaam Hussein, the majority sentiment in Iraq is definitely shifting away from a feeling of liberation to one of resentment of the American occupation. Instability and insurgency is erupting all across Iraq as both Sunni and Shiite populations take arms against the American forces.
Uprising: At Word of U.S. Foray, a Baghdad Militia Erupts
Basically - time's up. We've lost. There is really no hope now of instituting some kind of Western-valued, pro-America shining example of Democracy in Iraq. There's nothing to do now but slog through a long and turtuous attempt to stabilize the region, and fend off the increasing waves of anti-Western world-wide terrorism that's bound to come. How did it come to this? How did we loose this war for the hearts and minds of Iraqis in only a year? How is that it only took a year for the U.S. to institute itself into an intractable logic of occupation and terrorism that is coming more and more to be a mirror of the Palestinian/Isreali situation?
Let's count all the mistakes the Bush White House has made on this, starting at the beginning:
1. Manufactured intelligence to create a false motive for war - thus alienating alienating allies, pro-Western Arab regemes, and any American with half a brain enough to follow the news. We thought arms for hostages was bad, but for this alone, Bush should be impeached.
2. No international backing for the war - thus, an "illegitimate" war that sets up America as the prime target for hostilities. If we hadn't manufactured the intelligence and alienated our allies (on issues ranging from Kyoto to the Palestinian/Isreali conflict), we might have actually built an international coalition to "take down" Saddam's government.
3. No understanding of Arab mentality by anyone in the Bush White House, thus completely mishandling Arab nationalism, customs, pride, emotionalism, and centuries of Western love/hate resentment. Thus, the same person can go from tossing flowers to hand grenades in a year with just a few symbolic injuries to his pride, while no instructions or sensitivity training is given to the "liberating" forces (and no inclusion of Arab forces to help with this).
4. Points 2 and 3 above only excacerbate this point - which is, no planning whatsoever for a post-Saddam Iraq, including: a) not enough ground troups to maintain security post Saddam; b) focus on hunting for the fictional WMD's rather than on immediately improving the lot of the "liberated" people; c) no sense of concern or care for sacred/precious items, including artifacts, religious sites, etc.; d) no pre-planned Internationally backed judicial system that could be immediately implemented to arbitrate disputes and regulate behavior while being accepted as legitimate by most Iraqis; e) not enough Arab and international troups to give the Iraqi's a sense of being liberated rather than occupied by Americans (and, to a lesser extent, British).
5. Then, when all goes wrong in points 2 through 4, what do the Bushies do? Do they try to rectify the situation? No, they do what they do best: stonewall, misdirect, and play hardball politics. So, no opportunity to implement any corrections to their misguided course - instead, they just make matters worse and worse, until some brilliant dope gets it into his head that the best and shiniest example of how to build a democracy is to close down a beloved newspaper.
Now, if only this had been done with half a brain, we probably actually could have 1) made the world safer and 2) created some kind of fledging Arab religious democracy, in the mold of Isreal and 3) saved about 200 billion dollars in the process.
Who put these dopes in charge of the world? Oh, yea, that's right - our activist/conservative Supreme Court did.....(same Court that said it was no longer consitutional to bang down the doors of gay people and arrest them for being gay. Hmmm....well, I guess they do have SOME standards....)
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