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April 4, 2005
Billmon: 04/04
Comments
The Hirohito quote made me laugh out loud.
Until I realized that Hirohito had enough sense to quit. These asshats will just keep on keeping on.
Posted by: fourlegsgood | Apr 5 2005 6:06 utc | 1
(crossposted from a message on a thread on Kos.)
Personally, my analysis [about Iraq] is that we’ve lost and we’re fucked.
It is not up to us to determine the future of Iraq, fears of civil wars or otherwise. It is in fact way too late for that. The analogy here would be India under/after the British Raj, or French Algeria. I think we’re a bunch of ignorant and arrogant fools if we think we can decide Iraq’s fate.
Therefore, the only thing left to do is to cravenly leave, apologize and write a big check to pay for what we broke.
The debate, discussions, committees, testimonies, critical analysis and reflection, etc. currenly going on in Washington, including in Dem circles, strike me, at best, as a diversion from, at worst as a legitimization of, Bushco’s real plans for the region.
The sordid reality, as we all know, is that BushCo have sunk their claws in, how many? 16 Fort Apache-like bases in Iraq and they’ll never leave, ever ever — fuck the Dems, fuck the committees, etc, is the way they look at it.
By playing their game, you, well, play into their hands.
They will never leave of their own free will — at least not until this evil regime is truly and well defeated.
If you care to save lives, American and Iraqi, I see no other choice at this time than rooting for the utter defeat of the U.S. military in Iraq. In the long-term, that is the only thing that will bring about a true change in domestic policies.
Arguing about the recent past, lies, mistakes, etc., is, to a large extent, a waste of time. A country which, in the 70s and early 80s, could not bring itself to prosecute Kissinger or McNamara and is still revisiting its defeat in Vietnam today (with meretricious “stabbed in the back” myths) is not about to learn any real lessons from Iraq, not for another century or so.
Should a Brit have rooted for a British victory in India? Or a Frenchman for a French victory in Algeria? I don’t think so.
The only way out is through not just an American defeat (that, we already have) but the overwhelming realization of an American defeat, ie: a much larger defeat.
Anything else is just a delaying tactic.
Posted by: Lupin | Apr 5 2005 15:59 utc | 2
Tsk, tsk, Lupin.
You know, when after another massive fuck-up and major outrage I said I wouldn’t mind if half the army there ended up on Zarqawi’s latest video, I was told I was vile.
We’re between civilised people here, so we can’t state that the death a few ten thousands guilty soldiers is a just punishment for the death of more than 100.000 innocent civilians (assuming we don’t count the million+ dead between 1991 and 2003).
That said, a few millennia of history tends, alas, to support your point; the only unknown is how big the beating before US people wake up. That, for me, is the scariest bit.
Posted by: VileJoe | Apr 5 2005 17:37 utc | 3
Ahhhhh Lupin, such a sissy:
“It is not up to us to determine the future of Iraq, fears of civil wars or otherwise. It is in fact way too late for that.”
The real fun is just beginning. If these children can’t get along, looks like the US elites’ll just have to split up their playpen into 3 parts…each being too small to ever again cause the Empire problems by growing into a regional power. Not good having one big country in the region w/both oodles of oil & water…!!
Posted by: jj | Apr 6 2005 4:02 utc | 4