2006-11-25 - 12:43 a.m.
What’s this? What’s this, you say? Sunni gunmen spread out through a Shiite slum neighborhood in Baghdad and killed two hundred average Joe and Janes (or, more properly, Mahmoz and Mustafa)? We learn from the news that, in response to this, Shiite gunmen attacked a Sunni neighborhood and gunned down numerous others.
This followed that astonishing raid on a college administration building, during which two hundred people were kidnapped, many of whom were subsequently tortured with electric drills and decapitated, just like in the movie HOSTEL. One can’t help but feel that the insurgents are getting their ideas for torturing from Hollywood, rather than the other way around.
The insurgents sneak into the Green Zone for their raids, disguise themselves as Iraqi police officers to kidnap and torture whomever they choose, and they attack and kill US and multi-national soldiers with impunity. The gas companies can’t protect their oil pipeline, the museums have been looted of unbelievably valuable artifacts (most of which, one suspects will end up in the larcenous Getty collection in a year or so), foreign contract workers are described as being the equivalent of the Holy Grail for kidnappers, and, on the other sides of the borders, Iran and Syria are literally licking their chops and providing weapons and porous borders for the villains to come and go as they please. We in the US only care about the American soldiers who are killed, of course, but by now they number in the thousands – far over the number of Americans killed in the actual 9-11 attack.
The vile current policy notion of trying to push Syria and Iran into helping stop the crisis is an almost jaw-dropping misreading of the behavior of the region – it’s almost as bad a mis-interpretation as were the original Crusades. Who came up with THIS loopy idea? How can we expect those two countries to help stop the chaos in Iraq? After all, they love it!
It is totally in the interests of Iran and Syria to keep things as chaotic as possible in Iraq. And, in the case of Iran, the only deal we can make with them is to allow them to build nuclear bombs in exchange for saying “Do stop all these insurgent activities, dear Iraqi insurgents. Pretty please. Do stop!” Then the bombs, built by Iran in exchange for these platitudes, will fly upwards to Kuwait, Israel, before being carried in tin briefcases to Los Angeles, Washington DC, and New York.
Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to hang in a ridiculous and absurd show trial full of squawking and shrieking that brings to mind that famous episode of The Three Stooges in which Moe bops Curley and Shemp with a gigantic foam hammer. And even the thug’s death sentence is raising ire amongst the fleecy brained (and unrealistic) organizations like Amnesty International and the EU, where they protest the idea of capital punishment in any form, even for tyrants.
Following all this, one can only say that there appear to be no reasons to be in the region whatsoever. You listen to President Bush sputtering drunkenly about how important it is to “stay the course,” or how we shall “step out when they step up” and even he sounds like he doesn’t believe what he says. Face it, he made an impulsive, emotional decision to invade Iraq based on dubious information and the promises of cretinous, venial advisors. He wanted to go Adventuring, as a lark. For a while, they tried to convince us that they needed to invade to find the Weapons of Mass Destruction. Then they tried to sell us on the lofty idea of “exporting democracy.” Now, I am not sure what they are trying to say – we can’t leave because we’re there, or something like that.
And the opposition has been bullied and lied into supporting the war. One loves watching how the Democrats try to distance themselves from their earlier support of the invasion – they went along with it, based on an arrogant sense of adventurism and a lack of spine. And now Bush keeps telling us how wicked it would be to cut and run. And that we must not give in, for fear of losing the war. The truth of the matter is this: We have already lost the war.
There was a war – and we lost! It didn’t happen at first: I would even say that up to this year, there was a way to win it, if only by really actually occupying Iraq and using the same horrific, blood thirsty means that the enemy uses. We should have executed everyone in the prisons, burnt the mosques, and boiled the Imams in a kettle. But it is a national personality trait that we are NOT Imperialist by nature. We do not take to the role of occupiers (at least in this present age) easily and with comfort.
Now – with the insurgents only getting stronger and the country in a state of Civil War, we frankly add nothing whatsoever into the mix. We have no role there, except as naïf targets and pawns for either side to use as they please. The only thing we can do, frankly, is withdraw and try to limit the loss of face that we otherwise must suck up. Inevitably, we shall realize that this is yet another war that we are the losers – not out of military might, but out of a lack of will, focus, and long range planning.
