| Editor's Rant |
| This space is reserved for our editor to spout off with his incite-ful opinions. |
WHAT'S NEXT IN IRAQ?
Polls show that Americans are sick of the protracted mess that the war in Iraq
has become and getting sicker. All of the Democratic candidates for
president are promising to end the war, but it’s hard to nail them down on the
details. Which begs the question--what’s going to happen to Iraq after we
finally leave?
I’m afraid that the government we’ve set up there stands little chance of
surviving our departure. That government is basically a lot like the Soviet era
communist governments of eastern European countries like Romania and
Hungary. They were set up by a foreign power and backed up by the foreign
military. But once the soviets decided they would no longer use military force
to support these governments they all fell, some peacefully and some not so
peacefully. The point is, no population is going to embrace a government
that is forced on it by a foreign military power.
What I find incredulous is the professed belief of the Bush administration that
we would be greeted as liberators after we saved them from Sadaam
Hussein. Really? After we’ve bombed all of their cities, killed many of their
friends and relatives, knocked out their power, water, sewer and phones, they
expected them to be grateful? The average Iraqi didn’t even consider
Sadaam to be an evil man. After all, most of them had learned throughout
their entire lives what a great and wonderful leader he was in school and in
the state-controlled media.
The problem was that the Bush administration only listens to those who tell it
what it wants to hear. They were willingly accepting questionable intelligence
as fact as long as it was consistent with what they wanted to believe.
What we need to do now--the only thing we can do--is to get our troops out of
harm’s way and let the Iraqi’s sort out their own mess. Even though it’s a
mess of our making, we can’t fix it for them. We should continue to maintain a
sizable force in Kuwait and be prepared to step in to prevent genocide or
something equally atrocious.
But whether we stay in Iraq for another five weeks or five years the eventual
likely result will be that majority Shiites will rise to power and create an Islamic
theocracy similar to the one in neighboring Iran (also controlled by the
Shiites). Although the Kurds will probably maintain their control of the north
and might even create the independent state they’ve been craving for
decades. This is the outcome I’ve been predicting since before the war
began and now it seems more likely than ever. The only question is how
many of our soldiers do we want to bury before we get there?
has become and getting sicker. All of the Democratic candidates for
president are promising to end the war, but it’s hard to nail them down on the
details. Which begs the question--what’s going to happen to Iraq after we
finally leave?
I’m afraid that the government we’ve set up there stands little chance of
surviving our departure. That government is basically a lot like the Soviet era
communist governments of eastern European countries like Romania and
Hungary. They were set up by a foreign power and backed up by the foreign
military. But once the soviets decided they would no longer use military force
to support these governments they all fell, some peacefully and some not so
peacefully. The point is, no population is going to embrace a government
that is forced on it by a foreign military power.
What I find incredulous is the professed belief of the Bush administration that
we would be greeted as liberators after we saved them from Sadaam
Hussein. Really? After we’ve bombed all of their cities, killed many of their
friends and relatives, knocked out their power, water, sewer and phones, they
expected them to be grateful? The average Iraqi didn’t even consider
Sadaam to be an evil man. After all, most of them had learned throughout
their entire lives what a great and wonderful leader he was in school and in
the state-controlled media.
The problem was that the Bush administration only listens to those who tell it
what it wants to hear. They were willingly accepting questionable intelligence
as fact as long as it was consistent with what they wanted to believe.
What we need to do now--the only thing we can do--is to get our troops out of
harm’s way and let the Iraqi’s sort out their own mess. Even though it’s a
mess of our making, we can’t fix it for them. We should continue to maintain a
sizable force in Kuwait and be prepared to step in to prevent genocide or
something equally atrocious.
But whether we stay in Iraq for another five weeks or five years the eventual
likely result will be that majority Shiites will rise to power and create an Islamic
theocracy similar to the one in neighboring Iran (also controlled by the
Shiites). Although the Kurds will probably maintain their control of the north
and might even create the independent state they’ve been craving for
decades. This is the outcome I’ve been predicting since before the war
began and now it seems more likely than ever. The only question is how
many of our soldiers do we want to bury before we get there?
