The conundrum, at least as I see it, is that it's too late to stop fighting a war that never should have been fought in the first place... and this from a guy who really thinks that we never should have gone into Iraq in the first place.
Iraq isn't like VietNam which was, at its heart, a civil war to erase a political boundary. It isn't like Korea which, putting aside the communist ideology component, was also a civil war. Those wars presented opportunities for us to pack up our gear and let the indigenous populations work out their differences.
Iraq is an artificial construct... a political construct made up of at least three disparate populations with very little in common apart from religion, and differing even in their view of their religion. We pulled out the linchpin that had been holding the country together. However tempted we may be... and we are sorely tempted... to walk away from this trainwreck, we own this trainwreck.
Would it help to move Cabinet meetings from the White House to the Green Zone until it gets cleaned up? That idea kind of sings to me.
2 comments:
Oooh. That sings to me too.
In no way can we walk out now. We've destroyed the infrastructure, the political balance (however much no one liked it), and the economy. We did that. We cannot morally walk away.
Oh, yeah! I like that idea too!
As much as I rant about wanting us out of Iraq, I admit there are serious moral and ethical implications of abandonment after tearing their country apart. A new twist on "to the victors belong the spoils".
Our walking out would also assure Al Queda has a homeland forever.
Post a Comment