From troops on the ground to members of Congress, Americans increasingly blame the continuing violence and destruction in Iraq on the people most affected by it: the Iraqis.This is cowardice bordering on criminality. Of course, criminality has led to this position.Even Democrats who have criticized the Bush administration's conduct of the occupation say the people and government of Iraq are not doing enough to rebuild their society. The White House is putting pressure on the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group have debated how much to blame Iraqis for not performing civic duties...
Iraqis' role in their own suffering has been an issue since shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, when looters ransacked the national museum and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld dismissed it by saying, "Stuff happens." But more than three years later, with schools and hospitals struggling, electrical service faltering, and police and government agencies infiltrated by sectarian death squads, the question of blame is more urgent.
For example, a Nov. 15 meeting of the Senate Armed Services Committee turned into a festival of bipartisan Iraqi-bashing...
Thomas Donnelly, a hawkish defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he considers blame a legitimate issue. "Ultimately, just like success rests with the Iraqis, so does failure," he said. "We've made a lot of mistakes, but we've paid a huge price to give the Iraqis a chance at a decent future."...
"Our role is not to resolve those issues for them," [Condoleeza] Rice told reporters last month after pressing Maliki to be bolder about disbanding militias and reconciling sectarian differences. "They are going to have to resolve those issues among themselves."....
I don't want this war to go on any more either. No one does. But blaming Iraq for being invaded, occupied, having its infrastructure and government destroyed, and having had hundreds of thousands of its citizens killed is of the most profound moral cowardice.
The US has lost this war and created further chaos in the Middle East. It is an American responsibility; it is the Bush administration's responsibility. Now the administration and its lackeys, in order to save a small bit of face for themselves alone, want to turn the US into a nation of cowards (in addition to be an empire transcendent to international law, a bully nation, and a torturing nation) by tiptoeing backwards out of the chaos and blaming the victim?
Cowards and bullies do that.
3 comments:
Wait: So democracy isn't this messy then?
You have to want to be democratized, MT. You have to want to be invaded and then do what the invader thinks is best for you. Obviously, the Iraqis prefer their invasions and occupations messy.
Ok, so we don't abandon them at the first opportunity? Finally you make sense even if your point was to call us all cowards.
murk democracy IS this messy and never very robust. That's why it should be fostered. But it may be more than just a few Iraqis with a vested interest in its failure. Despots in the region will be desperate for the idea not to spread to their own people and will almost certainly arm insurgents and provide advisors if they have not done so already.
Hell it would be worth defending Iraq just to poke a stick in eye of their anti-democratic neighbors.
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