I thought enough had been said about the situation in Iraq except now we have "advisors" and "drones" in there helping al-Malicki. That sort of seems like the right thing to do, but the Russians are there (and aren't we opposing them in the Ukraine) and the Iranians are there (meanwhile some GOP members of the Congress want to pass a law forbidding any nuclear negotiation with the Iranians) and you just wonder how we have been drawn into a situation where our enemies are our allies except when they are our enemies while our allies are funding our new enemies.
Why should we expend any government funds (which are borrowed and increasing the budget deficit as they are incremental marginal government spending not paid for with any revenue increase)?
Then I find an article on the front page of the NYT today explaining the Iraqi troops were ready to fight to defend wherever, but the generals didn't support them (i.e. they ran out of water in the desert), so they fled. Why did we ever think this Army could succeed? They fled when we retook Kuwait. They fled when we invaded Iraq. 2/3's of the country is being persecuted by the other 1/3 (those are geographical %'s not ethnic composition) and the country is incoherent politically with a shoot first mentality.
Iraq was never a country where the U.S. was going to be successful at nation building because once the Shiite had a vote, they decided to persecute the Sunni's who were used to being in charge and will fight for their land. (not unlike the Viet Cong) When there is a Civil War, there is little the U.S. can do except make our troops targets with no possibility of success.
But as Maureen Dowd writes this a.m., that is not stopping Dick Cheney from running off at the mouth and showing how out of touch with the American population he is.
"But, then, they did always create their own reality spun from grandiosity."
"They are shamefully showcased on cable TV, which has so much airtime to fill that it doesn’t care if it’s hot air. They are once more pounding on the fear button and warning that America needs to attack or risk being emasculated by Middle Eastern terrorists. Doesn’t Vice know that most Americans, especially the Bushes, cannot stand his demented scaremongering anymore? Even Fox News anchors are now pressing him with skeptical questions about the war."
"Asked by Fox’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck if he thought we “could be on track for something worse than 9/11,” Cheney replied, “I think that’s a possibility.”
"He’s always busy predicting another 9/11. Too bad he and W. ignored warnings about the first one. Cheney is not only responsible for Iraq melting down and Afghanistan being mucked up. He can also claim credit for so exhausting John Wayne’s America that a skeptic on military intervention, Rand Paul, is a credible candidate for the G.O.P. nomination."
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