Once Crook Down…Bunches To Go…
Yesterday’s guilty verdict in the trial of Lewis “Scooter” Libby for lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice is an important victory for Americans – after six reckless years of governing with impunity, the Bush administration has finally been held accountable for its criminal actions.
Perhaps the tide of their lies has finally started to turn.
The only unfortunate thing is that Vice President Cheney and Karl Rove were not also indicted.
Although perhaps that too, will also eventually come to pass.
A Cop on Every Corner in Baghdad…
News reports suggest that President Bush’s much vaunted troop “surge’ is having an effect, quelling the violence in Baghdad. Muqtada al-Sadr and many of the other Shi’a and Sunni militants reportedly left in anticipation of the American forces arrival. And now sectarian violence in the city is at an all-time low since the invasion.
Just great!
My only question is, will this have any permanent or lasting effect?
The answer, I think, is obvious: Having all these American soldiers there will certainly have a quelling effect on violence. Their presence would intimidate the hell out of anyone. So, sure: if we place 10 American troops on each and every corner of Sadr City, or wherever, the residents will all be on their very best behavior – as long as the American troops remain.
But as soon as they leave, of course, the militants will quickly filter back and it will return to business as usual.
Why?
Because it’s their country; their city, and their neighborhood – and has been for the last several thousand years.
That’s the key: we’re fighting thousands of years of history in Iraq – thousands of years of customs, thousands of years of antipathy towards the “Crusaders” as they call us. And these are just not the sorts of things you can change overnight. There’s just way too much inertia.
Any attempts at forcing a democracy on these people will fail. The concept of a democracy is completely and irrevocably foreign to Iraqis. Installing a democracy there has about the same chance that installing a Shi’a theocracy would have here in the United States – which is to say zero.
So just as water seeks its own level, the political situation in Iraq will inevitably come to just one conclusion: The Shi’a have a vast majority in Iraq. Iraq will be a Shi’a country. Just like it has for most of the last couple thousand years.
Yes, we can delay the inevitable with what Bush has proposed, but that’s it.
We will never actually change the ultimate outcome.
So the bottom line is that every American life spent pursuing the war in Iraq is spent in vain. Our valiant soldiers deaths serve no purpose whatsoever, because our presence won’t affect the ultimate end in Iraq, not one iota.
This is an egregious tragedy.
We must bring our soldiers home now, before even one more life is lost!