Well, kids, If it's Tuesday, it must be bullshit editorial
day again in the Villages Daily Sun. Today there are myriad columns to choose
from, but Ollie North (you remember him, disgraced Marine, convicted felon?)
Grabbed my attention with his pathetic attempt to put a positive spin on the
thousands of American and more than a million Iraqi deaths.
I have zero
difficulty with North lauding the bravery and sacrifice of US troops assigned to Iraq; but I
am disgusted with the fact that the fat cats who sent them there at the President's
behest still maintain that it was a well
intentioned and honorable endeavor. All the reasons why the Iraq debacle was an
ill thought out, monomaniacal, self serving (on Bush's part) attempt at nation
building have been thoroughly wrung out here and elsewhere. Bob Woodward, who
had extraordinary access to the Bush White House in the first administration
(2000-2004) quotes several unimpeachable sources as stating unequivocally that the war in Iraq was
Bush's goal from inauguration onward, and all the smoke and mirrors of WMD,
enriched Uranium rods, etc, was just
that. Of course, other casualties besides the truth included Colin Powell's
credibility, Valerie Plame's career, and any semblance of reliability in the
human intelligence community, overt or covert. For perhaps once in the last 75
years, the French were proven correct and the US in error in the great Iraq
adventure.
So, why
bother to mention this? It revolves around the fact that after most traditional hostilities had finished, a civilian
was selected to oversee the return to nation statehood of Iraq. His attempts to reintegrate Sunni former
military and police into the human infrastructure of a rebuilt Iraq were nixed
by both SecDef Donald Rumsfeld and VP Cheney.
This created a disaffected underclass of unemployables (Sunni) and upward
mobility for minority Shiites, essentially forging a closer bond between two
former enemies, Iran (an overwhelmingly
Shiite state) and an Iraq which is now far more Shiite friendly. As big a bastard
as Saddam Hussein was, he was a force keeping militant Shi'ism at bay. Saddam
Hussein was a secular Sunni dictator. He despised Iran. Saddam fought a war
with Iran in the 1980s in which each side lost a half million men. Saddam let
the world think he had nuclear weapons to keep Iran in check.
How times
have changed! Iran now has both a close ally in Iraq and a key trading partner.
Just look at the taxis in Iraq, which used to be old Volkswagen Passats
manufactured in Brazil. Now, many of the yellow taxis choking Baghdad with
traffic are boxy Iranian-made Saipas.
Iran is building an oil pipeline to Iraq, too. The largest single ethnic source of foreign
entries into Iraq is now Iranian, and these are just the overt entries, as the
900 mile border invites insurgent border crossings. Iraq has become a
Shiite-led state that feels a certain affinity to Iran, its giant Shiite
neighbor.
So, Oliver North continues to be a toady and a mouthpiece
for the son of the man who pardoned his felonies, while he lauds the efforts of
the son to strike a blow for "democracy", and far more odious, while
he attempts to spin the Iraq debacle as a prime example of
"mission accomplished." But I repeat this: Iraq has become a Shiite-friendly and dominated nation drawing ever closer to Iran. It is hard to imagine any of this was part of the plan when
President Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave on that cold night in
Baghdad.
It is inexcusable that the far more intelligent Rumsfeld and Cheney both
failed to foresee the results of their doctrine driven exclusion of Sunnis and
the predictable ascendency of Shiites, and overrode the recommendations of
those who did. And the Bush administration is responsible. The properly lauded serviceman and women who
died in Iraq didn't have to. It serves as another in a long chain of scenarios of angry old men sending beautiful young men and
women off to fight their wars.
No comments:
Post a Comment