Friday, August 04, 2006



Failure in Iraq

It's official: the dream of a democratic Iraq, spouted by Bush and Blair as a "justification" for their illegal war of aggression, is dust. Instead, according to the outgoing British ambassador to Baghdad, the most likely result is civil war - or worse:

Mr Patey wrote: "The prospect of a low intensity civil war and a de facto division of Iraq is probably more likely at this stage than a successful and substantial transition to a stable democracy.

"Even the lowered expectation of President Bush for Iraq - a government that can sustain itself, defend itself and govern itself and is an ally in the war on terror - must remain in doubt."

In other words, Iraq is fast on the way to becoming a failed state, like Somalia, only with more oil. Was that really worth forty thousand dead civilians?

The disaster in Iraq ought to be a reminder that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and that trying to impose democracy at gunpoint is unlikely to succeed. Unfortunately, the lesson doesn't seem to have sunk in to the NeoCons yet; according to Salon, they're raring for another go, and trying to widen the war in Lebanon to include Syria and Iran in a desperate bid to show that their ideas are something more than dangerous fantasies (a kind of "double or nothing", played with innocent people's lives). And worse, Bush seems to be listening to them...

3 comments:

It's rather debatable whether the people behind the invasion of Iraq had good intentions in the first place. If they thought they had legitimate reasons, they wouldn't have made up nonsense about WMDs.

Posted by Commie Mutant Traitor : 8/04/2006 03:20:00 PM

"Tens of thousands of Shiites draped in white shrouds gathered in Iraq’s capital Friday for a pro-Hezbollah rally.The streets of the Shiite-dominated Sadr City slum were packed with thousands of people for the rally, called by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Organizers said about 250,000 people had gathered, but the estimate was impossible to confirm." - © 2006 The Associated Press.

It seems that it might take another week to ten days for the IDF to completely wreck Lebanon after which the Shiia will be feeling very vulnerable in Iraq... it is very hard to see US/UK occupation lasting to the end of the year if the Shiia in Iraq turn against them...

...and it is hard to imagine NATO member Turkey sitting back and permitting split up of Iraq

... so a British/U.S. attack on Syria or Iran (via the IDF which is after all a proxy US funded outfit) might very well be a nice little diversion ahead of Congressional elections?

Posted by Anonymous : 8/04/2006 10:22:00 PM

Well the Chinese are already expecting the worst

Posted by Anonymous : 8/04/2006 11:32:00 PM