Good Early Election News from Iraq
You've already seen this, so you don't need me to point you to it. I just couldn't resist the urge. Keep your fingers crossed all day. Drag out the rabbit's foot. Say yourself a prayer if you're into that sort of thing.
This whole damned ridiculous mess could still end up working out. I know, I know--no matter what happens we're still a bunch of idiots that got led by the nose into an unjust war that was against our national interest by an unelected and unqualified moronic religious fanatic. Um, that was bad. But on the bright side, nobody's going to remember that if this works out. (Um, except for people who are paying attention and Americans with political consciences...but those are fairly small groups...) If this debacle turns out to be...well, a debacle, the U.S. will be a target of hatred and derision well into the forseeable future. If this debacle some way, somehow ends up becoming less debacle-like and getting a rough semblance of a democratic government in place, then we just might escape with some small part of our reputation and dignity intact.
These are all secondary or tertiary considerations, of course. The most important thing is that the people of Iraq, who we have taken such an active role in abusing since the Reagan administration, finally get a fighting chance to live good lives. We started the whole damn thing by supporting Saddam and perhaps we could take some satisfaction from turning things around, no matter how accidentally and ineptly.
I'd be an amazing testament to the power of democracy should it succeed under these conditions--despite having been ineptly and unjustly introduced into a country that doesn't really seem ready for it and which is in the grip of hyper-theism. That last bit is the one we should be most concerned with now, I suppose. It's hard enough for America to keep its own theistic extremists in check; God (as it were) help the Iraqis.
Um, that all sounds fairly pessimistic, which wasn't the point of this post. The point was that we--and Iraq--are not dead yet. There's still a fighting chance to pull this thing off, and we'll know a lot more about the chances of success after today.
You've already seen this, so you don't need me to point you to it. I just couldn't resist the urge. Keep your fingers crossed all day. Drag out the rabbit's foot. Say yourself a prayer if you're into that sort of thing.
This whole damned ridiculous mess could still end up working out. I know, I know--no matter what happens we're still a bunch of idiots that got led by the nose into an unjust war that was against our national interest by an unelected and unqualified moronic religious fanatic. Um, that was bad. But on the bright side, nobody's going to remember that if this works out. (Um, except for people who are paying attention and Americans with political consciences...but those are fairly small groups...) If this debacle turns out to be...well, a debacle, the U.S. will be a target of hatred and derision well into the forseeable future. If this debacle some way, somehow ends up becoming less debacle-like and getting a rough semblance of a democratic government in place, then we just might escape with some small part of our reputation and dignity intact.
These are all secondary or tertiary considerations, of course. The most important thing is that the people of Iraq, who we have taken such an active role in abusing since the Reagan administration, finally get a fighting chance to live good lives. We started the whole damn thing by supporting Saddam and perhaps we could take some satisfaction from turning things around, no matter how accidentally and ineptly.
I'd be an amazing testament to the power of democracy should it succeed under these conditions--despite having been ineptly and unjustly introduced into a country that doesn't really seem ready for it and which is in the grip of hyper-theism. That last bit is the one we should be most concerned with now, I suppose. It's hard enough for America to keep its own theistic extremists in check; God (as it were) help the Iraqis.
Um, that all sounds fairly pessimistic, which wasn't the point of this post. The point was that we--and Iraq--are not dead yet. There's still a fighting chance to pull this thing off, and we'll know a lot more about the chances of success after today.
posted by Winston Smith at
8:02 AM
5 Comments:
I'm extremely puzzled as to why you believe this. Any order the Iraqi government gives has virtually no chance of being implemented. It has no army, and what military it has is nothing more than Islamic militias loyal only to Sadhr. It cannot control the country. Its elected representatives are attacked daily and are often killed without fear of justice. The professional class has been decimated by assassinations leaving the country with virtually no educated class to guide it. The oil infrastructure is bombed as a matter of course, leaving the country without desperately needed income. The country is beset by an extremely powerful guerrilla war that is could care less about the results of this election and just wants to overthrow whatever order is there. Three years on we still have yet to provide even the level of basic services Iraq enjoyed before the war.
Purple fingers are unlikely to change any of this.
"We're not dead yet". Much like the black night from Monty Python's the search for the Holy Grail. And while everyone can still sit dumbfounded at the person who has all their limbs removed and still can characterize it as merely a flesh wound, it's irrelevant in the real world where the rest of us live.
Look, if this all works out, of course we'll be singing the praises of those clever, forward thinking war mongers and we'll have a thousand year reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis. But wishing a thing does not make it so. The writing is on the wall and by now, it's cast in stone. Running around with a rubber eraser isn't going to do jack.
This will inevitably be another corner turned and discovered to be a blind alley. Question is, what are we going to do next? Sit and hope yet again that the light will be visible around yet another corner?
This is a joke - an enormously expensive joke, in lives, treasure and lost diplomatic and political capital - not to mention the idiocy of shattering the American military mystique. It's going to take decades to clean up after this crap, and there's a lot of things that will never be fixed.
Sorry, but after a while, the whole sweetness and light Pollyannaish thing stops being naively charming and starts looking like a co-conspirator in the whole sordid affair - an enabler. This is going to get really ugly after the hopes are dashed yet again. And it doesn't look like there are any more mystical milestones they can hold out. Whoops. Scratch that. There's still the re-write of the constitution that people have been pinning what little hope remains in this mess.
Yea, that's the ticket. If they can only rewrite the constitution, they'll be able to make everything work.
I'm never sure what to say to true believers such as yourself, A. I don't think the facts matter much to some people...
I'm not optimistic, but I've seen nothing that makes me think that it's all over yet. What we get from Iraq is a mass of hazy and conflicting information. Bush and his supporters pick out the rosiest interpretation of the information, those of your ilk pick out the most pessimistic interpretation. People I've talked to who have been over there (including folks in the Army and CIA, and a Kurdish Islamic scholar) seem think--as I do--that things look grim but not hopeless.
Me, I'm betting that Iraq is f*cked--but it's not a done deal yet. Stranger things have happened, and democracy is a powerful force. The U.S. military apparently puts the odds of success around 50-50.
And anybody who thinks I'm a Pollyana about Iraq either isn't paying attention or has his head up his a**. Not sure which you are, A.
Oh, and I DO like the Bushesque twist in there: if you don't think we're doomed you're an apologist for the administration. Very nice. Flip side of "If you don't think we're doing exactly the right thing, then you're supporting the terrorists."
Congratulations one becoming just like the Bushies. Your mother must be very proud.
Yes, this election has gone swimminlgy, just like that last few. And we've seen how those worked to calm everyone down.
Winston: you don't have be a blind idealogue to notice that this election jive has gone on before, and has had no discernable impact on the stability of the government or the intensity of the insurgency. It just takes a pair of functioning eyes. There's nothing wrong with feeling optimistic about this particular election, but it should certainly be a cautious optimism, as it necessarily runs counter to the experiences of the past two years.
sandab...um, er, *how* is the election a nightmare for liberals, exactly? I'm lost.
Matthew,
Well, I think I've made it clear that I'm actually a notch below cautious optimism. I'm actually closer to optimistic pessimism. But this election is a little different than previous ones, and looks like there's a higher Sunni turnout.
Keep yer fingers crossed.
Oh, and I DO like the Bushesque twist in there: if you don't think we're doomed you're an apologist for the administration.
Yea, that's *exactly* what I said. Lordy.
Rather, what I said was the polyanic naivite of "we're not dead yet" borders on enablement, which isn't even close to the way you characterized it.
Still, have fun storming the castle. When you have your next revelation that the barn doors have been open and the horses have been long gone, I'm sure that closing them angrily will greatly help.
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