Let's not forget the other cheery possibilities - the establishment of an Iranian-backed Hizbullah government in Southern Iraq and a Turkish invasion of Northern Iraq the minute we get out.
A childhood friend of mine is in the Marine Corps and went back into active duty. He's serving right now in Fallujah. He's quite a right-winger but of course I have sent words of encouragement and support (even though I think he's a lunatic, I NEVER miss an opportunity to thank our soldiers for their service). I did have to remind him, however, that the Left (along with a right-wing sliver of the Israel lobby) were the only people in the US who decried our support for Saddam Hussein back in the 80's.
Now I think the Bush administration is on the brink of a tremendous achievement: an outcome that actually might prove worse for Iraqis than Saddam Hussein in the long run. It's really astounding when you think about it. Conservatives support a fascist maniac to contain the Iranian Islamists and could end up giving the Shiite mullahs half of Iraq, giving Al-qaeda a permanent presence in the Sunni Triangle and creating the necessary conditions for a war between a well-armed Pesh Merga and Turkey. How many times do you hit a foreign policy trifecta like that?
boddi
On 11/22/05, Chuck Grimes <cgrimes at rawbw.com> wrote:
>
> ``There is disagreement on how best to extract the troops now that
> there is no alternative police authority in the country, since exit
> now could easily lead to a bloodbath. Trying to minimize that
> bloodbath is not some gimmick but a pretty legitimate debate...''
> Nathan Newman
>
>
> -------
>
> It occurred to me that this kind of `best' withdrawal strategy and
> crocodile tears for Iraq is a cover for a far more ominious
> possibility.
>
> With virtually zero Iraqi support and with an ever increasing number
> of attacks against US forces, the US choices may not be staying the
> course and winning a stable Iraq or leaving while trying to minimize a
> bloodbath.
>
> The choice might be: face total defeat or get out now. How about them
> apples?
>
> Since the basic thrust of Murtha's speech was about saving the US
> military, it sounded like Murtha was having Vietnam deja vu---which I
> read as a recognition that this war is not only unwinnable, but it is
> getting dangerously worse.
>
> The longer we stay, the more casualities we will suffer only to put
> off the day when we leave under even worse conditions.
>
> Here's what Murtha said: ``The future of our military is at risk. Our
> military and their families are stretched thin. Many say that the
> Army is broken. Some of our troops are on their third deployment...''
>
> Read between the lines. It's a distinct possibility the US is on the
> road to a military collapse in the field.
>
> A military collapse doesn't mean running out of ammunition. It means
> that the psychological state of the troops and the conditions they
> encounter have become so poor they are ineffective in offensive
> operations and assume a defensive position. That must be what Murtha
> saw.
>
> (I wrote the above before I read this): ``We can lose in Iraq and
> destroy our Army, or we can just lose." (Paul Krugman, Time to Leave,
> 21 November 2005...''
>
> Any day sometime soon, maybe next week the blame game will start about
> `not standing tall' and `four square' behind `our boys'----blah, blah,
> blah. Once we're out, the `spit on our troops' stories will start. A
> whole cottage industry will spring up proving beyond a shadow of a
> doubt that we could have `saved Iraq'--- all paving the way for next
> time. Old men will tell their grandchildren America was great back in
> ought-three when we `stood' for something. Every couple of years a
> saccrine news special report will drag out some hapless cripple with
> metals from the VA home and we'll go through it all over again. Nice
> young college girls with a tear in their eye will wonder what dad or
> mom who went to Iraq and ate an IED was really like.... A Diane Sawyer
> clone will look at the family album on 60 Minutes and the completely
> pickeled corpse of Dan Rather who took Andy Rooney's place will offer
> bits of wisdom about war from his respirator...
>
> Jesus fucking christ. Have we seen this movie before or what?
>
> Get out now...
>
> CG
>
>
>
>
>
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