Image credit: NYTimes photo reduced by Cujo359
My, I sure am glad that's over. Now that the Congress has channeled its moral outrage, screwed up its courage, and decided to maybe pass a non-binding resolution on Iraq, I'm sure we can get on with the business of withdrawing from the slaughter we helped create in Iraq and get on with rebuilding our own country. President Bush will see Congress's resolve now and agree to play by what we Americans who actually stayed awake in civics class think of as the rules, right?
Yes, and I'm the King of England.
Are there more than a handful of people in Congress who are paying attention? It's clear that Americans want to get out of Iraq, and it's even clearer that they don't support an escalation of the war, by whatever vaguely sexual term you choose to refer to it. People are dying, literally, by the truckload in Iraq. They are dying, at least in part, because we trained and armed the people who are now killing them.
In short, we are not making things better there, we're making them worse. What's more, we're killing some of the best of our next generation in order to stay there to make things worse. So, what do you say, Congress, how about, just once, doing something that's really difficult, huh? Maybe just for a little while, act like people who have their own children, friends, spouses, or parents in harm's way, and fix this disaster you've allowed to happen?
UPDATE: This AP story on Bush's address includes this quote:
The president is ignoring a key recommendation of the bipartisan, independent Iraq Study Group, that he solicit help from Syria and Iran, the official said. Instead, he will call for increased operations against nations meddling in Iraq, aimed at Iran and, to a lesser degree, Syria.
Bush to acknowledge mistakes in Iraq
In short, we're losing the fight in Iraq, where the bulk of our armed forces are committed, so let's pick a fight with Syria and Iran. I can't decide who's grip on reality is looser - Bush's or the Congress's. Since in the case of Congress we're actually refering to a group of people, I suppose Bush gets the nod.
2 comments:
Iraq is a tribal society, we are not. What ensued was a predictable quagmire which must end...NOW. For a great read regarding history and it's pesky tendency to repeat; the book "Out Now: a participants account of the american movement against the Vietnam war" by Fred Halstead is to many the definitive treatise on the Vietnam war protest movement, it's origins, strategy, internal organization, struggles and lessons learned. The author was one of the key organizers and well respected by those directly involved with the pivotal events of that era (see the Amazon.com reviews).
Hi Mark,
Yes, there were all sorts of divisions in Iraq - tribal, sectarian, and ethnic, that the government doesn't seem to have taken into account before invading the place. I sometimes wonder if there's any way this could have succeeded, no matter how many troops we had sent there or how well we'd trained them to act as peacekeepers and law enforcers.
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