If you want a clear concise presentation of the incompetence, cronyism and gross negligence that has epitomized this occupation from day one (actually from before the invasion even occurred) you can do no better than Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book Imperial Life In The Emerald City. He chronicles, first hand, the facts and the actions taken by those running the occupation from Baghdad's 'Green Zone' that doomed post-war Iraq from the start.
Give it to a Republican you know for some light summer reading. If they still support Bush and the fiasco in Iraq after reading it they are beyond hope.
Posted by snark at June 19, 2007 08:39 AMI hope no one can imagine what it is like to be petroanus as he shreds his soldiers in a hopeless campaign of terror against the people of Iraq?
can you imagine someone willing to waste the lives of anyone around him to appease an idiot leader? Has he been offered a huge payout by the contractors that sell him products to kill?
of course he has, so has everyone. war will not end folks. they are making sure that everything is far more violent so that it will always be so.
where are the people of america? what are they doing? walking through a cloud of anti depressants looking at flowers and their beautiful SUV's?
it is truly sickening to see what we have been groomed for by the teevee
Posted by oldtree at June 19, 2007 09:08 AMIts one of those days for me, that we've all had, where I just sit here and somehow try to consciously wrap my head around the mind-boggling magnitude of stupidity that surrounds Iraq.
I know how we got to this point, but really how in the hell did we get to this point?
Think I'll escape into the woods with the twins today...
Posted by Simp at June 19, 2007 09:14 AMhow in the hell did we get to this point?
Dick Cheney, that stupid bastard...
Posted by tempus at June 19, 2007 10:33 AM"The action against Al Qaeda is warranted, and exactly the battle we should be waging against them. " -(Steve Soto)
-Nonsense. It is a contradiction in terms to believe one can support a 'warranted' action against Al Qaeda while opposing an occupation of Iraq.It is also pernicious.
Those who support American action against Al Qaeda in Iraq are supporters of the American occupation of Iraq.
These contentions are not mutually exclusive.
Statements such as these serve as retroactive justification for the invasion of Iraq, albeit under a 'liberal' imprimatur, and differ little from the fascist rationales of the Bush Administration.
All out, preemptory invasions of other countries ostensibly to attack Al Qaeda are unconscionable and unjustified.
And now, in retrospect, just as in Afghanistan, the Bush administration could care less about Al Qaeda- as its actions so clearly prove.
Posted by Jill Bains at June 19, 2007 02:07 PMAl Qaeda in Iraq is a pernicious entity that must be dealt with regardless of the occupation. It is true that they weren't always a presence. In 2003 by some estimates there may have only been a couple hundred foreign fighters in Iraq, but their presence is felt now. I think in some ways if combat forces press the fight with Al Qaeda and steer clear of the sectarian conflict, American interests are better served in the short term.
Yes, we need to get out of Iraq, but at this point that will entail helping to clean up the mess.
Posted by obelus at June 19, 2007 05:41 PMobelus,
Focusing on Al Qaeda is focusing on permanent occupation.
There is no way these can be severed.
Contemporary liberalism cannot get past this conundrum, which renders it nonsensical.
Posted by Jill Bains at June 19, 2007 10:00 PMFocusing on Al Qaeda is focusing on permanent occupation.
Explain your logic please. Because the one does not link to the other at all, except in the planning of the Bush/Cheney fascist cabal.
You can't even tell who or what al Queda is, just because some idiots claim to be "al Queda" does not make it so.
Sure, OBL is just as likely a CIA plant as not; but the root of the problem in the Middle East is that the people of the region live under the heels of fascistic dictators, be it religious, political, or otherwise, and the thing they all really want is a piece of the action. That's what bin Laden wants (if he isn't just a CIA stooge of course).
They want control of their own lives, and that isn't unique to al Queda or the Shia or the Sunni or the Kurds or the Northern Alliance or anybody else in the region, Israeli settlers or Hamas radicals.
Bush is all about permanent occupation because of the oil and the power that flows from its control, al Queda, Iraq, Hussein, Taliban, Afghanistan, Armeggedan, Rapture, whatever, is wholly irrelevant to BushCo.
Posted by Duckman GR at June 19, 2007 10:14 PM