Dr. Strangewar
Or, could I learn to stop worrying and love Iraq? A look at the next five years.
In the early days of the Cold War, as the occupation of a defeated and divided Germany dragged on and questions were raised about the U.S. role on the far side of the Atlantic, the blunt British head of NATO cut through the diplomatic niceties. The goal, said Lord Ismay, was "to keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down."
It's still a useful formulation, in its way, for understanding the present and future in the Middle East. Washington's clear intent for decades has been to establish a large permanent American military presence in the region, and that is not likely to change no matter who is elected president in January. The main enemy the United States hopes to contain is revolutionary Iran. And one of the explicit reasons for invading Iraq was to make sure that Baghdad could never again threaten its neighbors—especially Israel and the oil-rich kingdoms of the Persian Gulf. Cutting through the diplomatic niceties, the legacy of Bush administration policy will remain: keep the Americans in, the Iranians out and the Iraqis down.
By those lights, eventually you might even be able to call the last five years a success, and some historians doubtless will. If, for instance, the United States manages to keep de facto dominance over the second-largest proven oil reserves in the Middle East, that could look very smart indeed. The old rank and file of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which was never a large organization, will continue to be dislodged and decimated. A few years from now the last remnants of the original Al Qaeda in Afghanistan may have been captured, killed or expired from old age. (The evil geniuses behind 9/11 and most other major Al Qaeda attacks were hunted down in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates by March 2003. Others were caught in Southeast Asia. Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with any of them.)
The occupation of Iraq might well settle into a rhythm where people there see their lives improving, even if it's a little like banging your head with a hammer because it feels good when you stop. Right now many Americans are rejoicing because the death toll in Iraq is back down to the levels of three years ago, but those numbers horrified us back then and they remain hard for the Iraqis to live with now.
If the violence continues to subside, ironically, so will pressure from the American public to withdraw the troops. Already it's lost count of the U.S. soldiers killed there (almost 4,000) and according to the latest "Political Knowledge Update" from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, the American media have for the most part quit paying attention. In January the percentage who followed news of the Iraq war was half the number who followed stories about the death of "Brokeback Mountain" actor Heath Ledger.
If casualties are down and headlines fade, why pull out at all? Yet Iraqi resentment of the occupiers is going to fester even if the insurgency goes quiet for a while. The situation in that sense is a little like Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, where everything seemed pretty peaceful; the Palestinians were quite passive from 1967 to 1987, and then they weren't.
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Member Comments
Posted By: Yankee2020 @ 04/24/2008 12:02:36 AM
Comment: Agree on that, 911 is probably no conspiracy. But you sait as good as it can be said: this country simply loves war. We need no reasons to make war. If we can't find one to look fair, we just make one up. At the end, who cares if it was made up, the masses will soon forget. Our violence-loving military culture likes to go out and play with its own very real weapons of mass destruction to see how many "enemies" it can kill with the latest laser-guided weaponry and then brag about it. Dead civilians? Ooops, but it's just "collateral damage". They are called that so that we don't feel bad about it. As long as most of the casualties are on the other side, as long big defense contractors are happy, hey, it's war for the "romance" of it as you said. Entire families dead, a wiped out country and death on every corner. Truly a classical romance.
Posted By: CommonCents123 @ 04/23/2008 12:44:45 PM
Comment: We are not after oil. What is wrong with you people? Your conspiracy theories are ridiculous. People say the news is just feeding our fear. And you people are eating it up and overweight due to it. Take a look at reports before we went to war, and even before the Gulf War, and see the breakdown of where we get our oil from. Then take a look at the present, where people are pushing for hybrid cars and ethanol, etc. Is it because of the war and high oil costs? No. Its because people are worried about the environment. Do you really think we attacked ourselves? Lets face the facts, people. We didnt need a reason to go to war. Our country by default loves war. In a classical romance way. And ask the soldiers who have served in Iraq how many oil fields they were ordered to defend. I served twice and havent even seen one. Get your story straight before you spew a bunch of garbage from your mouth. You dont have to support the war we are fighting, but if you live in this country, you have to stand by the colors. If you think we attacked ourselves, then you need to get out of this country. I didnt fight a war for people who would think such a thing. I fought for those who support the nation, and the willingness to make sacrifices for the greater good. Whether they like the war or not, they are who i fight for. Not you conspiracy theorists. Take the foil hat off your heads and put down the dungeons and dragons toys. Get out of your moms basement and go outside. Reality awates you.
Posted By: JohnGaltlaketahoe @ 03/28/2008 1:04:57 PM
Comment: The neocon controlled Bush Administration staged the 9/11 attacks in order to justify the imperial conquest of American military power into the oil soaked Middle East.
Only the oil remains. No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. No mobile biological weapons labs were found in Iraq. Iraq did not seek to acquire yellowcake uranium. The aluminum tubes were not suitable for nuclear use. The lead hijacker in the events of 9/11 did not meet with Iraqi intelligence. Iraq did not provide chemical weapons training to Al-Qaeda. There was no relationship between Iraq and Al-Qaeda. Hussein nor Iraq was involved in the events of September 11, 2001. Only the oil remains. The anti-trust violations of this State Department and Executive Branch are massive.
This war on terror has nothing to do with Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda was created and sponsored by the CIA during the 1970's Afghanistan war all the way up to the 1990 and the begining of the first Gulf War. Al-Qaeda involvement in the events of 9/11 has a sponsor.
Dick Cheney's private and secretly held meetings described as his ENERGY TASK FORCE are swimming in anti-trust violations regarding the soaring price of oil which is not related to market conditions,,,, rather...related to the mechanisms of the US STATE DEPARTMENT AND THIS EXECUTIVE BRANCH waging illegal international aggression for the confiscation and hostile takeover of IRAQI NATURAL RESOURCES.