A few words on Iraq

You may have noticed my total lack of comment on the whole Iraq thing. I had a look at FP's live blog of it, and then I read the text of the speech. I read the New York Times editorial, which basically says we should get out now. And in the end, I knew nothing more than I did when I started.

So what do I know? I know that a country with a weak government and no security force is likely to destroy itself. I know that American troops don't speak the language, don't know the politics, and therefore cannot be effective peacekeepers. I know, in short, that there is no clean way out of this.

Probably the only effective solution would have been to invite Iraq's neighbours to take over. They have their own agenda, without doubt, but most certainly could have handled the day-to-day security more effectively. But we didn't go that route. It will, in the end, come to that - either overtly or covertly.

So, in short, I didn't post on the speech (or I wasn't going to) because there is nothing to say. Tomorrow, next year, or in 2008 we will withdraw, and the country will find its own way, most likely violently. In the end Iraqis will feel about us much as they did before, some with more goodwill than others. I would say any expansion simply prolongs the inevitable, but given how unpleasant the inevitable appears, I understand why some would want to prolong it.

Heidi commented:
I've been thinking much the same thing over the din of this media bruhaha. Unfortunately, I can't think of a position to take that will both assuage my conscience and satisfy my practical impulses. I do know, however, that the peacenik yodeling at the Post Office on Liberty this evening as I walked back from the library just made me shake my head. "Get out now" seems just as facile a solution as "throw more (as you rightly point out, undereducated and unacculturated) troops in," and even more self-satisfying and righteous in some respects. ::sigh::
on Thu Jan 11 20:26:29 2007

Anonymous commented:
My father had a maxim for this sort of thing: Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the textbook definition of insanity. Adding more troops to the mix is not a different strategy, just an extension of the current strategy. If they were going to use or train those troops in a new way, there might be some value in the effort. Unfortunately, that doesn't look to be the case, so your prognosis is most likely correct.
on Fri Jan 12 09:21:17 2007

David commented:
Ah, if only we could get both sides of the debate to yodel....
on Thu Jan 18 10:09:07 2007

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