"The True, Terrible State of Iraq"

[magicmax]

http://www.counterpunch.org/
This needs to be mainstreamed.

[Atman]

1. Snip

Good article...tease 'em with a few 'graphs, eh?

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The True, Terrible State of Iraq

By PATRICK COCKBURN

Baghdad.

Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour?
When the storm has ended shall we find
How softly but how swiftly they have sidled back to power
By the favour and contrivance of their kind?
Their lives cannot repay us - their death could not undo -
The shame that they have laid upon our race.
But the slothfulness that wasted and the arrogance that slew,
Shall we leave it unabated in its place?

Rudyard Kipling, "Mesopotamia"

Rudyard Kipling's poem Mesopotamia denouncing those responsible for Britain's disastrous expedition in the First World War to what became Iraq, was written in 1917. By the time the war ended at least 31,000 British and Indians were buried somewhere in the country.

The difference between Britain's disastrous foray into Iraq then and the results of the invasion 88 years later is that those responsible have no need "to sidle back to power". They never lost it either in Britain or the US. It is nevertheless extraordinary to see Donald Rumsfeld, author of so many American failures here in Iraq, still holding his job as Secretary of Defence.

But there is a price to be paid in blood for keeping in power those responsible for past disastrous decisions in Iraq. It makes it much more difficult to seek a way out of the savage war that is now engulfing that country.

This is because past policies have to be portrayed as successful when they were dismal failures. The true terrible state of Iraq is glossed over. Just before the presidential election last year the White House imported Iyad Allawi, the Iraqi interim Prime Minister, to stand beside President Bush and say that only three or four out of 18 Iraqi provinces were dangerous. I ran this comforting thought past a group of Iraqi lorry drivers, none of them shrinking violets, who laughed sourly and said that the real figures were the exact opposite. Only the three Kurdish provinces in the far north were safe.

<snip>

http://www.counterpunch.org/

[magicmax]

3. Absolutely- Thanks...

I'm obviously new to this. At any rate, it's frustrating that this forum might one of few outlets for this and other pertinent and devastating information while the rest of the country goes on - trusting and oblivious. The "liberal media" spin has become a one of the greatest smokescreens, obscuring corruption by inciting a false sense of public security aided by a collusive mainstream press - a citizenry who believes they will know if misdeeds occur because "wouldn't the liberal media publicize it?"

[Atman]

5. Welcome to DU, max!

I didn't notice your newb status. WELCOME to the tea party!

[magicmax]

7. Thanks

It sure beats aimless isolated floundering along the NC coast. SOS !!

[wli]

2. Bush as the modern-day Hulagu Khan?

Well, not quite so successful. The lamer couldn't even commit war crimes properly.

"When I lead my army against Baghdad in anger,
Whether you hide in heaven or earth
I will bring you down from the spinning spheres;
I will toss you in the air like a lion.
I will leave no one alive in your realm;
I will burn your city, your land, your self.
If you wish to spare yourself and your venerable family,
Give heed to my advice with the ear of intelligence.
If you do not, you will see what God has willed."
Hulagu Khan, ca. 1258

[Village Idiot]

4. I would say that Shrub is a LOT more like Ogodai than Hulagu...

Drunken, imperious, mistrustful, and none too bright...

[magicmax]

6. The ineptitude

kmows no bounds. And that has been a strength, in a way, lulling a populace into believing there is no danger and distracting away from the true reality of the situation.
Interesting, "What God has willed." Hmm. very familiar tune. Either God has abstained from involvement in the whole mess and looks on with pity, or it is Mark Twain's God, who is merely amused by a human's propensity for complete self indulgence- even to his own detriment and ultimate self-destruction- and just idly watches as the game plays out.