Monday, September 29, 2003
Here It Comes...
From last January until the Neo-Cons in the White House actually invaded Iraq in March, a constant rebuttal theme to all the war-mongering was that the model of post-invasion Iraq would be less like 1946 Germany and Japan, and more like the 1990s' Balkans. Century old hatreds would re-emerge. Murderous chaos, if not open civil war, would be a likely result.0 comments
But, of course, this was all pooh-poohed in every Neo-Con press briefing. They'll be just like the good folks in Indiana, you'll see, they'll love it, asserted the White House.
However, like the entire Balkan region had been, Iraq is made up of factions who have been at each other's throats for thousands of years, with morphing loyalties and atrocities on all sides (which, of course, have to be avenged) covering hundreds of years of colonial rule.
This is why the U.S. has traditionally supported dictators like Saddam Hussein around the world. The iron fist approach has always made the unruly masses so much tidier for us to deal with. From your basic Foreign Policy perspective, it's so much easier to deal with an area of the world as a block than as a conglomeration of tribes and factions.
Take the Soviets out of the Balkans, they go back to killing each other.
And now that the Captain has turned off the Repression sign in Iraq, factions are now free to move around the countryside, killing each other.
With U.S. troops right in the middle of it all.
And they thought they were in a scary position before, just sitting through a guerrilla war.
Better order even more of those Kevlar vests, George.
posted by Gotham 11:39 AM
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