I Would Have Thought This Was Obvious
From our "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" department comes this observation by Michael Novak:
This is not civil war in Iraq; it is a limited, strategic, and tactical ploy whereby foreigners try desperately to inflame Iraqis against one another. The aim of these foreigners is to bring about such a cataclysm of murder and insecurity and fear that their tiny, tiny minority can then capture total power — just as the small minority of Bolsheviks did in the early rise of the Soviet Empire; just as the tiny bands of ruthless black shirts and brown shirts under Mussolini and Hitler spread social paralysis to launch the rise of Fascism. Mayhem requires only a ruthless few.
Labels: Suicide of the West, Terrorism
Presented for your delectation by the Gentleman Farmer at 7:23 AM
Comments on "I Would Have Thought This Was Obvious"
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Anonymous said ... (11:01 AM) :
post a commenti remain confused about what, exactly, victory in iraq will look like from the conservative point of view. as far as i can tell we can continue backing the current iraqi government/polic force/military, which are for all intents and purposes Shiite entities. they are connected at all levels with the Shiite militias that the US is currently trying to fight; and to a certain the government/military/police force are underwriting--or at least facilitating--the ethnic cleansing campaign which the Shiite militias are currently pursuing. of course, there's also the 'inconvenient truth' that backing the Shiites over the Sunnis will only help expand Shiite Iran's toehold (or, if you like 'deathgrip') in Iraq.
on the other hand we can switch tacks and start backing the Sunnis, but that puts us in bed with Al Qaeda and Saddam's former supporters, and just means we're backing a different ethnic cleansing campaign.
of course we can "stay the course" and continue to hope that after another 3,000 american deaths and 60,000 Iraqi deaths everyone will suddenly realize this war is a bad idea, and jump at the chance to start making concessions to their enemies in preparation for a peace-sharing arrangement. but going back to your "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it" point, pretty much everywar in history has showed us that people who fight each other don't agree to power sharing arrangements until they've had a chance to clarify their relative strengths with respect to each other and recognize that they won't be able to achieve their goals through continued warfare. and that that clarification of relative power can take some time.
the unfortunate reality is that our irresponsible actions in Iraq have precipitated a civil war; and that civil war won't end until all sides have realized that they aren't strong enough to win. sadly, that outcome doesn't seem to be anywhere on the near horizon.