" In Reality, Iraq Already is a Failure"!

[leftchick]

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=600366&category=OPINION&newsdate=6/25/2007

Cool the rhetorical heat and you uncover a single goal that President Bush, congressional Democrats and the presidential candidates from both parties emphatically agree upon: Iraq, they say, must not become a "failed state."

You know the riff. A failed Iraq would become a "terrorist haven." It would be a magnet for mischievous players from throughout the Middle East. It would be another oozing sore in a region already seized with seemingly unsolvable crises. No, the Republicans say, we must keep American troops in the country indefinitely so that Iraq does not fail. No, the Democrats say, we must pull back so the Iraqis can pull themselves together and rescue themselves from this failure.

There's a problem with this unanimity: Iraq already is a failed state.

"Basically, Iraq is on a course to violent disintegration," says Pauline H. Baker, president of the Fund for Peace. Along with Foreign Policy magazine, the Fund for Peace takes an annual look at nations that are most vulnerable to violence, ethnic strife, economic turmoil and social disintegration that are the markers of "failed states." Iraq now ranks second, behind only Sudan and its catastrophe in Darfur.

<snip>

Iraq's descent into violent chaos is known to anyone who watches the news. But it is rarely described, in our hackneyed politics, as anything other than a problematic surge in sectarianism or the handiwork of "insurgents." In fact, all of Iraq's social, economic and civic indicators are pointing down, according to the Fund for Peace analysis.

Consider the crises the report documents, but which do not make for good television footage: A food crisis has left half of pregnant women in Baghdad and 60 percent of schoolchildren anemic. The Iraqi government reports that "growing numbers of sick and wounded Sunnis" are abducted from hospitals when they seek treatment. In Basra, "doctors report that rotting piles of garbage left on the streets where children play are causing high rates of typhoid fever as well as fungal and bacterial skin diseases." There is no officially recognized count of Iraqi civilian casualties.


<snip>

[underpants]

1. Has been for years

[Solly Mack]

2. See - what our illustrious leaders really don't want is the blame for

that failure. Iraq can be a failed state as long as the US doesn't wear the blame for it. Now, many would be happy to blame Americans for it - the lack of suport and all that other bullshit.


So they'll keep pouring gas on the fire in order to say they tried everything to get the fire under control...and then blame the Iraqis for the house burning down.

[EV_Ares]

3. You got that right, was from the beginning for all the wrong reasons.

Also, has steadily got worse, the needless death & destruction far exceeds previous wars.

This is the reason this congress which talked talked about getting us out of Iraq needs to do what they promised the American people. It is understood about the numbers game of the congress. However, what is wrong with Edwards suggestion of repeatedly sending back the bill for Bush?

[leftchick]

4. but but we have "VITAL NATIONAL INTERESTS"!!!

aka: corporate profits to consider

:puke:

[EV_Ares]

5. Yeah, I know, just a thought. Guess we wouldn't want to interfere with

those Halliburton and Black something or other profits would we.