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08/13/2003 Archived Entry: "Thug Cabal Mantra: 'Whatever makes sense..."
Thug Cabal Mantra: 'Whatever makes sense...
... do the opposite and swear it's the Right Thing To Do.
The Bush administration has abandoned the idea of giving the United Nations more of a role in the occupation of Iraq as sought by France, India and other countries as a condition for their participation in peacekeeping there, administration officials said today.Instead, the officials said, the United States would widen its effort to enlist other countries to assist the occupation forces in Iraq, which are dominated by the 139,000 United States troops there.
Administration officials said that in spite of the difficult security situation in Iraq, there was a consensus in the administration that it would be better to work with these countries than to involve the United Nations or countries that opposed the war and are now eager to exercise influence in a postwar Iraq.
"The administration is not willing to confront going to the Security Council and saying, 'We really need to make Iraq an international operation,' " said an administration official. "You can make a case that it would be better to do that, but right now the situation in Iraq is not that dire."
When soldiers are dying every goddam day - either from hostile fire, dehydration or suicide - how in the world do these thug bastards have the nerve to try and tell us things are 'not that dire?'
Replies: 5 people speak up
It is a good sign that military families are organizing against Bush and the war. Not many press outlets covered it but they did well with their NPC appearance.
Posted by Rob @ 08/14/2003 02:47 AM NY
How do you say "You made your bed, now sleep in it." in French? Hindi?
Posted by barney gumble @ 08/14/2003 09:45 PM NY
The goal is to Iraq a capitalist democracy. Russia and France do not share this goal, and they would not be helpful in achieving it. I'd argue that France would work to undermine it.
Iraq will be rough going, but no one knows how it will turn out.
Some historical perspective is important here.
Our actions after WWII were vital: the democracies that took root in Japan and Germany were pillars of their respective regions. Each country, through peaceful trade and stability, caused two chaotic regions to become a lot more peaceful and wealthy.
I've heard enough people say, in effect, that there is no chance of that happening in Iraq (but they have to admit that they don't know the future and that this is really one big experiment).
But if Bush succeeds, and Iraq becomes the next Germany - a light to the region, an economic powerhouse that inspires imitation throughout the Arab world - would not the war have been proven worth it?
I say so. In fact, it would make the Iraq war the most important war we've fought since WWII (with very few casualities when viewed in that light.)
Bush has set his goals very high (I think that deserves praise). He did not merely promise a better government for Iraq (that would have been easy). He promised a capitalist democracy.
Truman made no such promises in 1945, because the idea was so ridiculous he would have been laughed out of town (little yellow Japanese people living in aJeffersonian democracy? Ha!).
But it happened anyway: It took time, blood, sweat...
Liberals scoff that it'll never happen, but they have backed themselves into a cynical box. This is their problem: foreign policy, and the people who run it, must GOALS and IDEAS.
Iraq is an experiment. Give it time.
Posted by John Rogers @ 08/15/2003 07:29 AM NY
'Whatever makes sense, do the opposite and swear it's the Right Thing To Do.'
Isn't that how George Costanza got his job with the New York Yankees?
Posted by Dave Jansing - Seinfeld fan extrordinaire @ 08/15/2003 01:30 PM NY
Mr. Rogers:
It's easy for Mr. Bush to make grandiose promises. They cost nothing, and, as his personal history shows, mean nothing to him.
What has he done towards advancing any of these goals? That's where he must be judged, and according to knowledgeable persons -- people experienced in peacekeeping, nation-building, people who know what's happening to the Afghanis for who Mr. Bush had equally lofty goals -- the man is a failure. More: He hasn't even done the minimal planning that might make success possible.
Posted by Phein @ 08/15/2003 05:26 PM NY
