Worse, even, than the mid-term polls. (After reading "The Gamble" by Thomas Ricks, on Iraq in the wake of the so-called "surge," I held out hope that General Petraeus' strategy - the core of which was bribing Sunni insurgents to turn against al Qaeda - would have some lasting impact on prospects for politics to break out amidst a civil war. Not so hopeful now.)
Resisting the urge to either laugh or cry, I choose instead to look for a context that might help those with a precatory vision of manifest destiny and the perambulations to justify that which is, at best, despicable.
Perhaps a look at how the knotty issue of collaboration was dealt in some gossamer evanescent manner in post-war France:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89puration_l%C3%A9gale
(a study more worth pursuing than the glad handing offered by the author)
The parlance here is as absurd as that of an american tourist who confronts a host in the belief that if one gets close enough and is loud enough that the words nearly shouted in english will be understood by the hapless national.. who is only there to be of service.
Come what may, the new super-Ft Apaches, some six of them, necklace Iraq and join in formation with a post-moderen Hadrian's wall which extend from Northeren Greenland diagonally down through the Chagos Archipeligo.
So the justification for the continued projection of power rests on the broken hope of Sunnis to bribe a handful of Al-Queda?
Bullshit.
Posted by: pablo | October 17, 2010 at 09:26 PM
Pablo, you're one of the least insightful people I've ever encountered in this life. "Tourist" would be a compliment to your level of perceptual reduction.
Posted by: reg | October 17, 2010 at 11:13 PM
"the broken hope of Sunnis to bribe a handful of Al-Queda?"
It would also appear that you can't read...
Posted by: reg | October 17, 2010 at 11:19 PM
Leaders who gain power through warfare have no stake in ending the war. Iraq needs some powerful interests intent on "winning the peace", but everyone we're backing seems to have their fingers crossed that they can just survive the next stalemate.
Posted by: Jamie | October 18, 2010 at 02:31 PM
but everyone we're backing seems to have their fingers crossed that they can just survive the next stalemate.
-----------------
Yes, we do have that Typhoid Mary quality attached to us.
Posted by: pablo | October 18, 2010 at 03:04 PM