I know, I know, everything is going swimmingly in Iraq. Diaries all over the internet with people talking up the idea that the "surge" is behind some degree of decreased violence.
I've consistently responded that it's a fiction. A purposeful fiction at that. Andrew Becevich is apparently the only conservative "thinker" willing to debunk the premise in an intellectually honest way. Glenn Greenwald over at Salon had a great piece on Sunday pointing out the absurd and unsupported opinions of the "serious" war cheerleaders like Gordon, Kagen, Cordesman, and O'Hanlon.
We all know who they are so I won't link to their pieces. Reading them makes me feel dirty and linking to them lends a degree of legitimacy to their analysis (propoganda) that I try to avoid. So if you're interested you can read them by taking a look at GG's piece. Suffice it to say the premise that things are getting better is mostly smoke and mirrors.
Big article by Solomon Moore and Richard A. Oppel Jr. just popped online pointing to the real sources of the "relative calm" and the equally real threat that things are about to implode.
At least 100 predominantly Sunni militiamen, known as Awakening Council members or Concerned Local Citizens, have been killed in the past month, mostly around Baghdad and the provincial capital of Baquba, urban areas with mixed Sunni and Shiite populations, according to Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani. At least six of the victims were senior Awakening leaders, Iraqi officials said.
But the recent onslaught is jeopardizing that relative security and raising the prospect that the groups’ members might disperse, with many rejoining the insurgency, American officials said.
American and Iraqi officials blame Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia for most of the killings, . . .
Of course unnamed military officials like to throw in the gratuitous and barely supported allegation that Iranian Al Quds bag guys are partially to blame.
Diyala Province seems to be real hotbed of "relative calm" and decreased violence. But seriously, the Iraqi government (using the term very loosely given the small number of legislators who show up regularly to conduct the people's very important business--in fairness they picked up that little governmental oxymoron quite nicely from our legislative body so kudos) did squeak through the Justice and Accountability Act attempting to right some of the L. Paul Bremer deBaathification wrongs. Only problem is it didn't provide much justice or accountability and Iraqis, both Sunni and Shia, don't really support it or expect it to have much practical positive effect as written.
Mutlaq said legislators who passed the law are more interested in appeasing U.S. officials using the law as a benchmark for political progress than reconciliation among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.
"They want to give the impression they're working on reconciliation," Mutlaq said. "They're bluffing themselves and the Americans by telling others they've done something."
The words epic, immoral, and clusterfuck come to mind everytime I read the ever-dwindling and dishonestly decontextualized narrative being spun by "the surge is succeeding" types.
Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman gets excellent purchase in describing the very real soul crushing dilemma we face and how the candidates for POTUS have consistently avoided instead of directly engaged the American public on how to deal with reality and the big question that goes something like this . . . "we broke it, it's unlikely we can fix it, so what do we do now?"
It saddens me in a way I cannot convey to read the IGTNT series. It saddens me in a way I cannot convey that we'll never know the stories of the uncounted and counted Iraqis who've been killed because of this insane nonsense. I can't even begin to wrap my brain around the lives of MILLIONS of Iraqis displaced as refugees living in camps. Imagine if you will that the price of "freedom" is that you sell most of what you own, pack up your family and go live in tent in Mexico for 5-15 years not knowing if your home exists, whether or not relatives are alive or dead, and when if ever you will be able to return to begin fixing your shattered life and dreams.
I'm not suggesting Sadaam Hussein was anything other than a dictator and an immoral human being, but were millions of Iraqis really worse off before we came? I don't know the answer. I do know that they are worse off since we came and will be for, dare I say, generations. A functioning sovereign nation bombed to crap because of our cultural stupidity, greed, and hubris. Basic services like water and sewer are at best patchy and electricity operates only 12 hours a day in many parts of Iraq. If at all.
The place is a ticking time bomb and the vast majority of Americans don't even know the exact number of American deaths in Iraq. As a nation we haven't even begun the gut-wrenching process that needs to take place to understand and come to grips with what we've done in the name of freedom and the American way of life. I'm not sure we're capable even if we were willing. I'm convinced many don't care or even appreciate the moral magnitude of the mess we've created for millions. All because a small group of fearful men wanted to feel important and change the world. The more depressing thought is that there are many who believe this is a good model for America's foreign policy going forward. Insanity. Maybe they should have considered the possibility that it's US who needs to consider changing. All the best intentions in the world aren't going to bring back anyone's loved ones or repair the broken lives of those who remain. Given how powerless we are to protect something as prized an ideal as the rule of law, in our own country, I wish we'd quit trying to dictate to the world how to live their lives.