Iraq could fail - if the Iraqis fail themselves. It's still too early to pack up and leave, but if the people of Iraq will not seize the opportunity we gave them to build the region's first Arab-majority rule-of-law democracy, it won't be an American defeat, but another self-inflicted Arab disaster. Iraq is the Arab world's last chance - and the odds are now 50-50 they'll throw it away.
This excuse has been brewing among the American Right since 2004, when the insurgency first took a solid hold. But they've been holding it in reserve until recently when things really started to go South on them.
Specifically: The U.S. invasion was actually a gift to the Iraqi people, and all those bombs were the sound of Freedom coming. If the Iraqis had just behaved like a conquered people should behave, they too could have had a Starbucks on every corner. But they've fucked it up. Hence, when the last American soldier gets hauled off out of the Green Zone by helicopter, shit flying out of the bottom of his pant-leg, the mess he leaves behind will not be the fault of the good old U.S. of A.
Expect to hear more of this argument in the coming weeks and months. Expect a recurrence maybe two years down the road in Afghanistan, mouthed by whatever Canadian politicians are in power at the time.
1 comment:
bcl,
I just read the linked article and it is almost dizzying. Israel loses to Hezbollah so it's going to win, the US loses in Iraq so it's going to win - you'd think Adam Daifallah wrote the damned thing.
And yeah, the "invasion is a gift to the Iraqi people" is nice dark comedy on a sunless Sunday afternoon.
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