It will take at least another three to five years before the U.S. will retreat from Iraq. The four big bases are mostly finished and staffed and the U.S. elite will not be willing to give up that strategic gain.
But on a longer term, I do not believe that the U.S. will sustain that project because the public will be further alienated by it and because the financial consequences will start to show up in everyday life.
After a retreat from Iraq the financial problems will mostly be solved by the U.S. strongarming the G7 or G8 into a new Plaza Accord, i.e. a massive devaluation of the U.S. Dollar.
But what is going to happen to the "American psyche", its "victory culture", after a retreat from Iraq.
Ira Chernus, a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has published his thoughts on this in Asia Times Online and at Tom Dispatch and comes to a quite frightening perspective: After Iraq, the U.S. will turn more nationalistic, militaristic and imperialistic.
Being only a U.S. observer, I have too little real recent experience with the "American mind" – most readers here have more. So let us know your opinion on the chance of this to happen.
Some excerpts from Cernus’ piece:
Cont. reading: The “American Psyche” After Iraq
Government reports are not neutral, but express the general tendencies of the administrations politics. See the just released International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. It even confuses the person responsible for it. In her release briefing Mrs. Patterson manages to contradict her own report several times.
The report:
The Islamic Republic of Iran is a major transit route for opiates smuggled from Afghanistan and through Pakistan to the Persian Gulf, Turkey, Russia, and Europe. The largest single share of opiates leaving Afghanistan (perhaps 60 percent) passes through Iran to consumers in Iran itself, Russia and Europe.
International Narcotics Control Strategy Report-2007
Released by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
March 2007
The briefing:
QUESTION: I have one more follow up. You are listing (inaudible) list that Pakistan is a major drug trafficking and money laundering center. How can you explain this? Where are the drugs coming and going through Pakistan?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY PATTERSON: There’s a legal definition of what a major trafficking — and it’s in the front part of that report — and yeah, sure, Pakistan because they take at least somewhere between half and two-thirds of the Afghan product moves through Pakistan.
Release of the 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report
Anne W. Patterson, Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs –
On-The-Record Briefing – Washington, DC – March 1, 2007
—
Cont. reading: Politicized Reports
If these reports in the Washington Post and the New York Times are true, which looks likely, the U.S. administration has committed the biggest foreign policy blunder possible.
North Korea did not intend to build nukes, but the administration, blinded by its own light, made them do so.
The Bush administration is backing away from its long-held assertions that North Korea has an active clandestine program to enrich uranium, leading some experts to believe that the original U.S. intelligence that started the crisis over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions may have been flawed.
Cont. reading: NoKo Intelligence Blunder
