May 25, 2004 6:01 AM

Mission Accomplished? Tell that to the families of those killed in the past year.

A year later: Iraq a bubbling cauldron

WE are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: The only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.

- George Orwell

A little over a year ago, George W. Bush stood on a carrier deck and announced the end of combat operations in Iraq. In retrospect, I have only one question for Our Sainted President: which rabbit hole did your grasp on reality dissapear down? How many American soldiers have died in combat operations since "the end of combat operations"? A less cynical person than myself might wonder how Our Sainted President could lie to us so cravenly. Of course, there are those as cynical as myself who are hardly surprised. Like Paul Krugman.

So they lied to us; what else is new? But there's more at stake here than the administration's credibility. The official story line portrayed a virtuous circle of nation-building, one that could eventually lead to a democratic Iraq, allied with the United States. In fact, we seem to be faced with a vicious circle, in which a deteriorating security situation undermines reconstruction, and the lack of material progress adds to popular discontent. Can this situation be saved?

We have created a situation where every "solution" eventually becomes part of the problem. Iraq is a place where, as General Wesley Clark once said "you cannot change people's minds by shooting at them." Yet, the US military still is of the mindset that the way to defeat the insurgents is to keep shooting at them. Winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi public, if it can be done at this point, will not come from the barrel of a gun. Neither the Administration or the American political and military authorities in Iraq seem to have a grasp on this reality. Even IF we were to defeat the Mahdi Army militarily, everything would change as soon as the American military and political presence goes away.

Along the same lines, the Administration likes to tout how the American authority in Iraq will be turning over "sovereignty" to Iraqis on June 30th. Of course, what they have neglected to mention is that Iraqi "sovereignty" will be nothing of the sort. An Iraqi government will not have the authority to make independent decisions with any more gravity than whether or not one of it's ministers can go to the bathroom. As I heard General Barry McCaffery say in an interview, "You couldn't open a Safeway by 1 July."

The Bush Administration has created a reality in Iraq that is so far beyond their ability to control that no one can reasonably claim to have any idea of what to expect. Yes, George W. Bush got his war against Iraq. I hope it was worth the price.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Technorati

Technorati search

» Blogs that link here

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on May 25, 2004 6:01 AM.

We like 'em with four legs.... was the previous entry in this blog.

And we're going to stay there until we get it right is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Contact Me

Powered by Movable Type 5.12