More Inconvenient Truths About Iraq
Where do we go from here?
This election is a referendum on Bush's un-provoked, unnecessary, largely unilateral invasion and unplanned occupation of Iraq (UULUIUOI). We are currently presiding over civil war(s) in Iraq. At stake on November 7th is attainment of a Congressional majority which can mount a modicum of oversight for this catastrophe. Oversight has three dimensions:
All political candidates of whatever political party, have to restrict themselves to conventional wisdom. The intelligent voter, unless he or she is narcissistic and self-absorbed, cannot expect them to do otherwise. But any loyal, patriotic and reflective voting American owes it to our country to think outside the box.
In order to do that, you have to put aside your blogging surf board for 20 minutes (or so) for some reading and thinking. You can do it here.
This election is a referendum on Bush's un-provoked, unnecessary, largely unilateral invasion and unplanned occupation of Iraq (UULUIUOI). We are currently presiding over civil war(s) in Iraq. At stake on November 7th is attainment of a Congressional majority which can mount a modicum of oversight for this catastrophe. Oversight has three dimensions:
Today, I am addressing #3.
- How did we really get to where we are?
- Who do we trust to lead America, going forward?
- What is the range of options within our grasp?
All political candidates of whatever political party, have to restrict themselves to conventional wisdom. The intelligent voter, unless he or she is narcissistic and self-absorbed, cannot expect them to do otherwise. But any loyal, patriotic and reflective voting American owes it to our country to think outside the box.
In order to do that, you have to put aside your blogging surf board for 20 minutes (or so) for some reading and thinking. You can do it here.
posted by Vigilante at 10/22/2006 07:45:00 AM
16 Moderated Comments:
I heard someone on TV just now, say that we couldn't leave Iraq until they could manage their country and the situation there by themselves, something we have heard many times by many people. This was said just as I walked to the sink to wash my coffee cup and empty the water down the sink. Suddenly, it came to me, the analogy that I have been looking for:
Bush may not have liked the water in Iraq's sink, but the water was cleaner then than it is now. Unfortunately, Bush pulled the plug on the day he invaded Iraq. Iraq has lost its clean water and there is nothing he or anyone else can do to get it back. Anyone who does wrong, whether by design or through poor judgment, owes the person or people he has harmed a mea culpa and a willingness to accept what loss of reputation he deserves, the size and severity of such punishment in accordance with the harm he has done.
The water is rapidly running farther and farther away.
Vigilante, It's always a pleasant surprise to find you've got a new post on Sunday mornings. Sunday moring is when I am able to do 90% of my surfing and reading.
Thank you for posting the two thought provoking essays. But I must tell you I thought the essay by Edward N. Luttwak was fatally flawed.
It's not that Luttwak is intellectually dishonest, but that he minimizes the great influence of outside countries in past civil wars and in the current civil war in Iraq.
For example both Great Britian and France had a huge influence in our own civil war and their participation greatly affected the outcome. In fact, many in Europe thought the U.S. civil war was simply a proxy for a war between France and Great Britian. Many scholars believe had France not blinked, the south might well have won the conflict.
I'm reasonably certain that the U.S., Britian and the so called "coalition" will pull out of Iraq soon. But that doesn't mean other countries won't be heavily involved in shaping the outcome.
Iran, Syria and Turkey all have a strong vested interest in the outcome. It would be foolish to think they won't be supplying arms and money and insurgents into the conflict.
Once again, as throughout modern history, the Kurds are likely to be the biggest losers in this conflict.
And let's not forget the lure of the Iraqi oil wealth.
I'm not making a case for the U.S. to remain, indeed, I'm not sure any resolution is possible under the current occupation.
I do believe, as I posted here just a couple of weeks ago, the the un-provoked, unnecessary, largely unilateral invasion and unplanned occupation of Iraq (UULUIUOI)will go down in history as one of, if not the, greatest blunder in all of American history.
the Wizard.....
"This election is a referendum on Bush's un-provoked, unnecessary, largely unilateral invasion and unplanned occupation of Iraq"
You'd like to think so wouldn't you?
But ignorance is no excuse.
Who is it who wrote recently?
De Nile is a tributary of De Potomac.
Iraq is in the last throes of democracy.
Editorial Comment:
I apologize for intruding in the ongoing conversation, but I feel it important to note that Mike's America is not be confused with Mad Mike's America who is a welcome guest in these pages because he always intelligently engages with the issues, even if he doesn't take my side of them.
vigilante
These are the unbiased, apolitical, thinking mans facts. Iraq, the middle east, and Afghanistan were all a guaranteed loss when Bushie refused to listen to all good advice to the contrary and attack Iraq not to fight terrorism because if that was the goal he would have stayed in Afghanistan where he knew from watching Russia and history as he once again stupidly ignored, we would have martyrs from all over Islam joining in to fight the foriegn invaders.
Instead He used the excuse of 9/11 to attack Iraq and unsettle the middle east guaranteeing the loss of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the entire middle east. He did all this so he could further his idea of a new middle east and world order. Of course lying all the while and whipping up as much support and frenzy as he could in the media and minds he controls.
At this point it behooves him to continue to ignore reality and continue to whip up a frenzy so he can continue staying the course in order to further prosecute his new middle east and world order.
We are all shamelessly being used so Bush can follow his plan for new order. I wrote this 3 years ago but it is more obvious today. Let me know what you think? I won’t get any deeper but it gets worse from here. http://www.anaveragepatriot.com/downloads/Manuscript2.pdf
At this point, all political rhetoric aside our soldiers may die but they should be fighting for us not Bush’s lost cause. The middle east and the world already hate us primarily because of Bush’s arrogance, Bullying, and warmongering in order to further his plan for new order. Nobody of consequence to my knowledge is advocating cut and run but Bush in order to use it as a ploy against Democrats for political gain. We do want to hand over Bush’s Iraq mess to the Iraqi’s sooner rather than later. Sadly Iraq will fail because as soon as we do step down and take an advisory role as we should, Maliki’s Government will be defeated. Then they can concentrate on killing each other which we knew would be the results of an Iraq attack.
I don’t know if you looked at Bush Uncovered that I wrote 3 years ago but someone sent me an article from Catholic World that just blew me away. She read my Doctrine and sent me the article because she said I nailed it and she sent me the sobering facts to back up what I said about him following the doctrine of nihilism in which he has to destroy before he can replace things with his new order. This will blow you away, remember his club at yale, the skull and bones. Check this out!http://www.todayscatholicworld.com/who-pulled-911.htm
There is only one resolution to this and believe it or not it is just starting and will get a lot worse. Bush has been following his plan for new order dominated by America, Britain, and Israel, and the world is joining together to go against us. With 118 member nations today belonging to the non aligned Nations, the enemies we have made as a result of attacking Iraq and destabling an already unsettled middle east, and our traditional enemies such as Russia, china, and N Korea, it will be us 3 against the world and Bush’s new world ortder can proceed.
His politics of bullying is designed to give him the facade of using diplomacy before he is forced to fight and implement his desired plan from the get go. He is setting everybody up including the world. Maybe the cheney Cabal is pulling the strings but remember Bush is the decider and only what he thinks matters. He is going to do what he wants and sacrifice whoever he wants in order to further his idea of a new order. There are too many pent up Religious, Nationalistic, emotions, that have been unleashed.
We do not end the violence as it will not be quell or denied now. We must fight and fight to win. This being a Religious war with Bush having hijacked our Democracy and Christianity, we have perverted, unbridled, religiosity on all sides of this so called war on terror and as a result with this being a Religous war it will be the longest and most violent the world.
EDITORIAL COMMENT
Please keep your comments on the brief side. Readers are more inclined to 'follow you home' (if that's what you want) if you don't tax your readers' patience.
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Mike's America How will this election not be a referendum on how badly the war is going over in Iraq? The recent operation to secure Baghdad was declared a failure by an American general, hundreds of Iraqi cops have been fired because of connections to death squads, militias have begun to take once what was thought secure cities in the hands of the new Iraqi army, and I could go on but honestly don't have the time to list the screw-ups. Please give a real answer and not some insult. I know my friend Vigil wants to rightly keep things brief but you can do far better than your first comment.
Thanks, for your comments, Beach.
I am not admonishing you - certainly - nor Mad Mike, Wizard, nor Little Bill. All of you are succinct writers, who know if they have a longer message, they will link it instead of posting it in comment. I Value Average American Patriot's participation, and hope he saves space for others in this room.
On another subject, this has never happened to me before:
Normally, as I have time, I get out and press the flesh on the 'Net, trying to make contact with bloggers of all types and stripes. My goal is to reach out to everyone in our national community and to encourage all to wrestle and contend with the issues that divide us - to get agreement on what we disagree with. Some sites probably don't accept my efforts to engage and refuse to post my contributions.
But for the first time today, I just received some email from a blog on which I had just posted my positions. It read:
"Sorry, but I'm not going to post your comment, as it's not so much a comment on my Blog as a biased comment of your own."
My comment was on topic, and contained no four-letter words. I felt compelled to consider: Are my edgy 'tudes getting in the way of my message? (Readers here are invited to weigh in on this!)
However, I'm more inclined to think this blogger's idea is to stay in his box, and keep his crib-mates like sleeping dogs - at home in their mythology.
The Truth about Iraq surfaces inconveniently again.
Alberto Fernandez, an Arabic speaker who is director of public diplomacy in the state department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, is reliably quoted as saying in Arabic, to Al Jazeera:
"We tried to do our best [in Iraq], but I think there is much room for criticism, because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq."
Fernandez also declared that the US was ready to talk with any Iraqi group - except al-Qaeda in Iraq - to end the growing sectarian violence and the continued fighting.
"We are open to dialogue because we all know that, at the end of the day, the hell and the killings in Iraq are linked to an effective Iraqi national reconciliation.
The Iraqi government is convinced of this."
What a nightmare.
There's no good solution to this mess.
Bush should publically apologize to the Iraqis for invading their country under false pretenses, then he should bring all concerned parties, militia and tribal and governmental, together in a summit to discuss withdrawal of American forces.
Time to eat crow. There is no other choice.
Can we change course without changing leadership? Can the authors of this catastrophic blunder solve it? Can the sacrifice of our soldiers be honored? Can the horrors that the Iraqi citizens face every waking hour be stopped? I believe it is the responsibility of every American to face these questions and have a soldier's courage to bring about the changes necessary to put us back on the path of honor that our history dictates. The world is watching and waiting and hoping.
At the beginning of the so called war it was a given that it would end in disaster.
It still has the potential to spread to the rest of the area , especially now with Bakers involvement.
At base he , Bush , Cheney are bible thumping madmen, who are calling for a New Jerusalem that will encompass the whole area from the Nile to Iran.
I am not making this up.
Part of their eventual revelation plan is to also wipe out the Jews, the little remnant they think that is not killed will convert to their brand of religion.
It might be time to get rid of Bush and his gang, before they get world war three or their Apocalypse going. This guy will then make Hitler look like a piker.
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