Wednesday, November 22, 2006

It's official -- we've lost in Iraq

Sorry posting has been so light. I just can't shake this cold so I'm going to start today by cross posting this from the Detroit News. I thought it was one of my better pieces lately.
When Henry Kissinger says Iraq is lost, then it's over. The man never met a war he didn't like. If he says it can't be done, we can't win in the sense of a military victory. Of course I never thought a military solution was feasible in the war on terror. I'm long on the record on that score, being one of the few people that was against invading Afghanistan.

Terrorism is an idea, not a place. It can't be ascribed to only certain ethnic groups. And despite all the rhetoric coming from the right blaming Islam, terrorism is not a religion. It's a lifestyle, practiced mostly by brash and idealistic youth and it's grounded in fighting for a cause they see as just and right. You can't fight that by bombing countries into oblivion and killing hundreds of thousands of people.

And it's not about taking away our freedoms, it's about fighting for their own. They don't want to take over the US and install Sharia law. There's no way they could do it if they wanted to. There's not enough of them. They just want us out of their countries.

That's not to say that I support their cause or want them to be able to impose their will on their own people. I don't think anyone should have to live under cruel tyranny but unless and until we're invited to intervene, it's not our fight. Invading countries to "liberate" them so that they may better serve our interests, will always be seen as an act of aggression and inspire some faction to fight against foreign occupation.

Try to think of this way. If the situation were reversed, and the terrorists had the big guns and the mighty military forces to physically take over the United States, in order to "liberate" us from democracy -- would you fight back? If your home was destroyed and your children and other loved ones were killed in the name of freeing you, would you love your liberators?

If we had given the reconstruction to the Iraqis instead of Halliburton, we could have achieved something great in Iraq. As it stands now, the American taxpayer has put out billions of dollars that has ended up lining the pockets of US megacorporations, and a large handful of corrupt politicians in both the US and Iraq. If we were delivering building supplies and medicines and food and most importantly jobs, instead of bombs, almost four years later, you can bet the the Iraqis would be loving themselves some democracy instead of wanting us to get the heck out of Baghdad.
If you don't read that blog regularly because you hate wading through the other bloggers, here's a few links to some of my other thoughts on the larger stories of the last week.

Gilmore takes secret law challenge to SCOTUS.

Should Fox News be classified as enemy combatants?

Privatizing propaganda.

Social Security, Health Care and Food Insecurity.

Why does Laura Ingraham hate free speech and fair elections?

The real class warfare is against the working poor.

Iraqis say Yankees go home.
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5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Such naivete...

You say that they don't want to instill Sharia in the US? Obviously you haven't been hearing them. That is precisely what they want.

Not enough of them? Well, perhaps you would be wise to recognize the historical fact that most of the countries that compose the so-called Arab or Islamic world in the present day, only became so because they were conquered by the Arab Muslims and the people forced to convert. They were neither Arab nor Muslim prior to that.

One of these countries was Spain, and many Muslims still consider it part of the Islamic world. It was the seat of the last great caliphate.

On a final note, there's approximately 1.5 billion Muslims throughout the world. Their population is expanding, while ours is declining. Don't be so sure that it can't happen here in the US.

7:57:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"They don't want to take over the US and install Sharia law. There's no way they could do it if they wanted to. There's not enough of them. They just want us out of their countries. "

I have tried explaining this over and over to people. the whole reason they are rioting in france is that they CAN'T take over, no one wil; hire them. if your company has 100 people and none of them are muslims how are they going to take it over? there is a mania out there that defies logic. what happens the day after we bomb iran? why would iran bomb us if they know we have 6000 nukes?

after five years the war on terror has devolved into utter lunacy. People who can't name one city in iran besides tehran are suddenly experts.

for me this all relates to the failure of communist central planning. we in the US are bound to have ridiculous notions about our policies because we don't suffer the consequences of them. and we have people who have no clue about these issues either right or left making decisions for people in the middle east. let the people of the middle east decide.

10:11:00 PM  
Blogger Libby Spencer said...

Anon, welcome to the discussion. It's true that Muslims seek to convert others to their faith. The same could be said for evangelical Christians, couldn't it? And if I remember my history, the Crusaders were rather coercive themselves. Either way it doesn't mean we should let a few thousand extremists dictate our lives.

Lester, thanks for the unexpected support. Really good comment.

7:48:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Libby...don't really have anything relevant to add. Just wanted to pop by and wish you and your's a Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you're over the cold soon.

5:00:00 PM  
Blogger Libby Spencer said...

Hey Kvatch. Hope you had a great holiday as well.

11:24:00 AM  

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