All the Systems Are Dying

Something that is pretty clearly true but is never really discussed (in the US anyway) about The War is that the US is not the only party that gets to define who "wins" and who "loses" in Iraq.

Much is made of the Anbar Awakening, and John McCain is of course very proud that he thought of it in 1999. Whatever. In American political discourse this Anbar Awakening usually seems assumed to count as a "win" for the US.

I doubt an Iraqi Sunni perspective is similar. From an Iraqi Sunni perspective, what happened is: the Americans invaded; we resisted; Al Qaeda showed up because the Americans invaded -- they weren't here before; we fought with them for awhile against the Americans, but later it turned out they were even bigger assholes than the Americans. Hmmm, we have these two groups here who we want to go away, how can we get them to go away? Well, let's go with the Americans, because they seem somewhat more trustworthy than Al Qaeda about living up to their promises.

See, the thing is, they think they beat us. Whether or not you or I or anyone else wants to dispute that, it doesn't matter; I think it's their perception.

I'm certain each of the fractious Iraqi parties & groups would be happy to have the American taxpayer guarantee security for them. I'm also sure the other Iraqi groups would object to any such arangement. And I'm also guessing that the patience of the American public for this sort of an arrangement has already been stretched way too far. Leaving is the only option, or else there's an explosion. More of one, anyhow. Another one.

The McCainian attitude towards Iraq is insane. This was a good idea? It shows wisdom? The best case scenario is that we have convinced the Arab World that in a pinch, we're better than Al Qaeda. (!) But then, even I don't think the American public is debauched enough to think that hundreds of thousands of corpses and hundreds of billions of dollars are a fair swap for a narrow public relations victory over Osama Bin Laden (or Saddam Hussein, for the love of fuck).

Comments

[coozledad]

Those sheiks cost a hell of a lot of taxpayer dollars. Some of them have been brought in with the assurance of future Iraqi oil revenues.
Shithouse'll be in flames again once they figure out all that money's going straight to Cheney and his buddies.

[Jemand von Niemand]

The Duh: A level of consciousness which perceives America as the center of the universe just isn't widely shared outside our borders. We've had to purchase the allegiance of factional and tribal leaders to stabilize an insurgency we created (in Iraq), and prop up a shaky government while ignoring its need for promised aid to rebuild a basic infrastructure shattered by thirty-plus years of war (in Afghanistan).

That isn't mentioned here. Admitting it might be true leads to an understanding that the invasion of Iraq was an unnecessary, wanton crime; and that our original claims of assisting the Afghans by helping to rebuild their infrastructure were more toilet-paper promises from the Sainted Codpiece. That our 'GWOT' isn't about Freedom and Democracy-building because, if people actually welcome your presence -- you don't have to buy them off.

[Michael]

Well, let's go with the Americans, because they seem somewhat more trustworthy than Al Qaeda about living up to their promises.

That, and we also paid them a fair bit of money by local standards.

I get the feeling that Iraqis, on average, probably make pretty good businesspeople. They've only had several thousand years plus a central geographic location with which to get some practice...