>DH:Why would they want to do this? How are US and/or Israeli interests
>>>served by civil war in Iraq? It makes no sense.
>>>
>> Leigh Meyers:Multi billion dollar weapons systems for a start.
>
> DH: Oh please. That's the crudest sort of vulgar Marxism, and you're not
> even a Marxist. Having Iraq go up in flames could drive oil to $200 and
> send us into a depression. Our rulers can be nutty & short-sighted, but
> not that nutty & short-sighted.
>
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The US doesn't want the sectarian break-up of the country; it favours a
loose federation. It's especially concerned by the continuing disorder of
the insurgency which threatens to lead to all-out civil war - both for the
reason Doug cites and because it undertands the turmoil would likely spread
to the whole of the Middle East. It's seeking to contain the insurgency and
to head off civil war by by splitting the Sunni community through the
formation of a national unity government which would isolate the insurgents,
and by disarming and dissolving the Shiite militias into a national army
under the joint command of the three communities. Anxious US proconsul
Zalmay Khalilzad has delivered this message to Jaffari and the government in
no uncertain terms, using US aid as a lever. It wants to stabilize rather
than inflame the situation, and it wants to do this sooner rather than
later, so it can begin withdrawing US troops well in advance of the US
congressional elections.
Some of the wild theories bandied about on this and other lists about the conspiratorial means being employed by the US to do the contrary - to further destabilize Iraq - would get their authors quickly fired from the CIA, National Security Agency, White House staff, etc. if they ever recommended them as "policy" in these circles. They'd be dismissed exactly as Doug describes them, as "nutty" within the context of the US objectives. More fundamentally, this reflex to attribute every atrocity to some frenzied US desire to create global havoc really denotes, IMO, a serious underestimation by overwrought leftists of the capacity of US imperialism - or any imperialism, for that matter - to adapt to new realities and to pursue their objectives through soft as well as hard power, as the situation dictates.