Please Stop Already
Frankly, I'm confused by all this yammering about "timetables for withdrawal" and "quagmires" and whatnot. Here's what the President said:
Our mission in Iraq is clear. We're hunting down the terrorists. We're helping Iraqis build a free nation that is an ally in the war on terror. We're advancing freedom in the broader Middle East. We are removing a source of violence and instability, and laying the foundation of peace for our children and our grandchildren.
That is perfectly clear. Sure, it's pretty freakin' general and all-encompassing, but the underlying message is unmistakable: the United States is colonizing the Middle East in a slow, deliberate, and rhetorically bulletproof manner. A lot has been made recently of Dick Cheney's "last throes" comment (and Rummy's "12 years" follow-up), but the reality of the situation has never been in doubt – the United States of America is never leaving Iraq (I offer my own prescient analysis as a supporting argument). Let's stop whinging about the protean justifications for our continued military presence in the region; the superobjective is the only objective worth remembering. The problem is that Bush's fun little encapsulation of our superobjective rings a little hollow (even some Republicans are dismissing it as boilerplate claptrap). Eventually we'll be left with two viable options: (a) run away like a bunch of pussies, or (b) cop to the obvious and admit that we're simply interested in securing the massive oil reserves of Iraq (and eventually Saudi Arabia) against the capricious villainies of tyrannical despots. What? Are we supposed to just cross our fingers and hope that the Saudis keep doing a good-cop/bad-cop dance with OPEC? Yeah, we've got Israel as our little colony in the region… but that's just not cutting the mustard petrol-wise. Sooner or later we've got to come out of the closet. We've got to level with the world. We're only helping Iraq to "defend itself" so that we can get our civilian contractor/paramilitary operations functioning in the region unencumbered and at full capacity.
This isn't a conspiracy. Nor is it inherently venal. It's just the way the world works.
6 Comments:
Ok, so America is entirely obsessed with scooping-up all the oil-rich real estate in the Middle East. How long will it take before America invades Iran.
Anyone placing any bets?
I don't care how many wrongs they committed, I don't care how many crimes these weak, rough, rugged, unlettered men who often know no other power but the brute force of their strong right arm, who find themselves bound and confined and impaired whichever way they turn, who look up and worship the god of might as the only god that they know - I don't care how often they fail, how many brutalities they are guilty of. I know their cause is just.
All I care about is how soon can I buy me a stuffed Iraqi to stand outside my house. I could put a cigar in its mouth like one of those old indians! That would be awesome. Or I could put a gas pump in its hand and turn it into a garden fountain. Tan me an Iraqi hide and then I'll jump on the Bush bandwagon and say the violence is totally "worth it."
I don't think we'll invade Iran. I don't think we'll get past Iraq. We'll just end up leaving Iraq a complete fucking mess. I don't think we should -- I think the place should get cleaned the fuck up. But no one wants us to do it because our motives are unjust. So what's the solution? I feel like there isn't one.
Yes. Sadly, I have to agree that this is how the world works. No matter how many time it's said, history repeats itself. Bush's speech last night had obvious echoes of Vietnam, and as laid out in the recent Harper's, the whole enterprise has striking (and omninous) similarities to the British occupation of the same region, which led to the very creation of what is now Iraq. The style or method of the rhetoric has changed, but, unfortunately, the gullibility of a scared, jingoistic, xenophobic public has not. I have more to say on this, but I just depressed myself horribly, so I'm going to have a stiff drink and call it a night.
I liked the part where he almost cried at the end. What a fucking puss!
If we gave Dubya a papercut in the fleshy web between his fingers every time one of our boys got 'sploded by an insurgent, you would see one hell of a timetable for retreat.
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