Iraq Ramblings/OTA Wednesday

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See Chaotic Synaptic Activity’s crosspost here for more detailed analysis of some of the presenting problems/opportunities of the Iraq War, and then… and then there are my lil semi-incoherent ramblings…

It seems to me that the Iraq War presents us with a set of unique advantages we did NOT have in Vietnam :

• The tribal, religious and cultural divides (Advantage? Yes, but only if someone in the feddle gummint with real influence has both the brains and the balls to take advantage of these factors)
• A growing awareness of the lies of the Mass Media Podpeoples’ Hivemind culture among more and more Americans
• The simple fact that a partitioned Iraq would create more problems for Islamic terrorists while at the same time going a long way toward providing a potential for some sort of peaceful resolution to the area… at least for the Kurds (leaving aside for the moment the problem of Turkey–a real but handleable problem for the Kurds, who, after all are still Saracens at heart. *heh*).

The problem with these factors is that there is literally no one in the feddle gummint who is in a position to use them AND has the simple intellectual horsepower to recognize them AND the balls to take advantage of them and run with them.

Paul Bremmer set the stage for a very real potential for American failure by disbanding the Iraqi Army (90%+ of whom were not rabid Baathists), ignoring (insulting) tribal leaders and playing proconsul. Of course, the fact that he did so with the full knowledge and support of the Bush administration compounded his sins.

But all we need is for one voice in the feddle gummint–one voice with real influence–to stand up and call the emperor’s butt-naked behind what it is. Could you say steamroll? I think public opinion could really burgeon in favor of a partitioned Iraq if all the facts were clearly explained.

“OK, kids. Since you can’t play nicely together, go to your separate rooms. No soup for you.”

Then, if they wanna keep on fighting, they can play Kilkenny Cats until the cows come home and it’s not be a threat to us.

“We tried to help, but these folks are just too backward and savage for a civilized solution.”