Category Archives: Iraq

Iraq: The Devil is in the Big Picture, Not the Details

Hillary Clinton, Iraq, Middle East, Republicans, War

Are there any limits to stupidity in politics? Not really.

Hearings on the war in Iraq this week saw Senator John McCain insist on, wait for it…more troops. Gen. John P. Abizaid, top American military commander in the Middle East, disagreed, although his innovation was to suggest that training the Iraqi military be made “more robust.” Yes, that’s right. All the Iraqis need is a bit more of what’s been worse than useless so far.

Lindsey Graham of South Carolina followed McCain’s cues—he always does. And in such undazzling company, the Hildebeest dazzled. “I have heard over and over again, ‘the government must do this, the Iraqi Army must do that’,” warbot Clinton complained to Abizaid. “Can you offer us more than the hope that the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Army will step up to the task?”

When it comes to Iraq, the pols fetishize details, hang hopes on minutia and forfeit a deeper understanding of the place and people. The devil is not in the details—more troops, or better training for Iraqis—but in the big picture. The government of Iraq doesn’t stand apart from the governed; it reflects them.

The divisions that have riven the region for four millenniums are mirrored in the current government, and will continue to hobble every successive government that hunkers down in the Green Zone, where it’ll forever be forced to take cover, incapable of governing Baghdad, much less the rest of the country.

The Worst has Become the ‘Best’

Democrats, Human Accomplishment, Intelligence, Iraq, Neoconservatism, The Zeitgeist, War

I watched Wonkette (or is it “Wonkette Emerita”) on Joe Scarborough. Unlike Tucker and Olbermann (good for them), he seems intent on parading airheads on his show (the segment “Hollyweird” comes to mind). Chris Matthews also invited this woman on his show to roll the words off her tongue, as she does with such affectation. In any case, she called Jim Webb a pumpkin head. The dictionary says that’s “a slow or dim-witted person.” Webb is nothing of the sort. When I first began writing about Iraq on WND.com, Webb e-mailed me in approval a few times, sending his editorials along. You have to be a complete wombat (“Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time”) like Wonkette to call Webb slow. A thought I recently shared with an interlocutor popped into my mind:

When I was young, the world was more merit based. It made more sense then. I could still be the best in the class. Now, the worst has become the best. Standards have been inverted. Nothing makes sense (except that one has to stick to one’s principles and be true to the truth). The awakening came when I first got to Canada and attended some course. A woman opened up her mouth to speak, and I thought, “Shame, she’s retarded.” Later it transpired she had degrees from McGill and other Ivy-league schools. I was in for an education. The woman wasn’t Wonkette, but came close…

The Worst has Become the 'Best'

Democrats, Human Accomplishment, Intelligence, Iraq, Neoconservatism, The Zeitgeist, War

I watched Wonkette (or is it “Wonkette Emerita”) on Joe Scarborough. Unlike Tucker and Olbermann (good for them), he seems intent on parading airheads on his show (the segment “Hollyweird” comes to mind). Chris Matthews also invited this woman on his show to roll the words off her tongue, as she does with such affectation. In any case, she called Jim Webb a pumpkin head. The dictionary says that’s “a slow or dim-witted person.” Webb is nothing of the sort. When I first began writing about Iraq on WND.com, Webb e-mailed me in approval a few times, sending his editorials along. You have to be a complete wombat (“Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time”) like Wonkette to call Webb slow. A thought I recently shared with an interlocutor popped into my mind:

When I was young, the world was more merit based. It made more sense then. I could still be the best in the class. Now, the worst has become the best. Standards have been inverted. Nothing makes sense (except that one has to stick to one’s principles and be true to the truth). The awakening came when I first got to Canada and attended some course. A woman opened up her mouth to speak, and I thought, “Shame, she’s retarded.” Later it transpired she had degrees from McGill and other Ivy-league schools. I was in for an education. The woman wasn’t Wonkette, but came close…

Saddam’s Sentencing

Iraq, Justice, Law

Saddam’s sentencing must be seen in the context of an Iraq that has been decimated by an illegal and immoral invasion and is awash with blood spilled by hundreds of mini-tyrants who’ve replaced the secular Saddam. These fulltime, rather than occasional, murderers are exacting their revenge upon their neighbors. Remove one Saddam, who kept a lid on the cauldron of crime and corruption that is Iraq, and there’ll be another waiting to take his place—and another and another. Just like a shark’s teeth.

The trial, in which every requirement of the 6th Amendment was flouted, did not even qualify as a show-trial. At the rate at which trial attorneys were being eliminated, the proceedings had to be clandestine and were thoroughly corrupted.

The Reign of Terror during the French Revolution is a better metaphor for justice coming out of terror-riddled Iraq; the Revolutionary Assembly better approximates the Iraqi court. Terror during the French Revolution was, after all, executed by popular demand.