A Theocracy is Born

Another theocracy in the making, that's just what the world needs right now. As if the situation in Iraq were not bad enough, a majority of the Shiites who are now writing Iraq's constitution want to rename the country the Islamic Republic of Iraq. Now there's a thing worthy of all the deaths in the name of freedom. I'm sure Iraqi women can't wait for all the freedom they're going to get under Islamic law.

What's incredible to me is how badly we've bungled this illegal action. It would seem to me that if you're going to start an illegal war, then you should be prepared to win it. If you're going to break the law, then make sure that the results are favorable, and that whatever spoils you take from the endeavor are worth the jail time that you will face. And it's not any illegal war, it's one that's taking place right in the middle of the world's gas station. If we lose, and it looks as if that is clearly possible, then what we are stuck with is an anti-American theocracy that is poised to threaten all of the Gulf States. Take a look at the geography of the Gulf region. There's Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. How much of the world's oil is produced in these countries? What will happen if an anti American theocracy supported by Iran threatens our main source of mobility? Trade will stop, economies will collapse, and the West will face an unprecedented crisis.

I just can't figure out why the Administration would take such a huge gamble and then roll the dice on the security of the Gulf Region. They must certainly know what the stakes are. These Republicans are supposed to be good at war. It's hard to imagine even now that they are so arrogant that they can't revisit the failed strategy and change course. Yet these are the guys that have never admitted to any mistakes, and blamed the incorrect intelligence on the agencies that produced the intelligence. But what about the military? These people are trained professionals and they can't be happy about the results of this folly. For a superpower to lose a war to an impoverished country with no organized military has got to be a humiliating defeat of the worst kind. And still we continue to stay the course.

The mandate that the American people gave the President last November was to continue the war. The first act not even 6 days after the election was to bomb the crap out of Fallujah, a heavily populated civilian area. Many journalists speculate that this was a punitive campaign, a payback for the four civilian mercenaries that were murdered and dragged through the streets in April of 2004. It did not, as planned, break the back of the insurgency, when the marines finally entered the city after days of bombing, they found that the enemy had fled, the insurgents had again disappeared into a cloud of dust among the rubble of destroyed homes and dead civilians. The insurgency lived on and now has become so brutal that hardly a day goes by when the headlines don't scream of some new death toll, 60, 90, 45, all dead, some Americans, but mostly Iraqis going about the business of making a living and feeding families. What possible reason can continue this insane effort that puts our young people in danger and allows the slaughter of the very people we were supposed to liberate? What possible motive can the Administration and the miltary have for the continuing humiliation of the greatest military in the world? What nation who considers themselves moral can stand silent while this atrocity continues?

The debate now is about withdrawal. On one hand I believe that with the current thinking in Washington and the military, there is no way we can prevail, and so we must get out. On the other hand, I believe since we have created this Clusterfuck out of stupidity or arrogance or some other failure of character, I believe we should make it right. How that can possibly happen is beyond my scope of thinking, but I am convinced that the US will not bring about stability or even peace in Iraq. WE are the problem, not the solution.

And hey can the American people get a refund on the war they have financed? We were told that we were buying a democracy, and now it looks like we have purchased instead a dangerous theocracy. The war to make us safer has endangered not only our country, but the basic economic infrastructure of the world.

What should we do?

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