Brave, Brave, Brave, Brave Sir Robin
Thinking about Iraq.
"Bring the troops back home" is very popular with the anti-war crowd. Most democratic candidates are advocating this as the solution to the problems Dubya has created over there. It's a bad solution though, because it ignores the fact that WE made a mess of the place. But as flags that were being waved a year ago get draped over coffins today, more and more people seem eager for a pull out. And now it looks like the Bush administration, always more mindful of the next election than of the Right Thing To Do, appears eager to look for a way to pull out of Iraq in time to get re-coronated, er elected, to the throne, er presidency of the US. That, anyway, would seem to be the latest from a meeting with Paul Bremer.
There are problems with this. The first is that, left to itself, an Iraq that has to be rebuilt by Iraqis after being destroyed by the U.S. is not going to be very friendly to the U.S. Bush began this enterprise having been told by protestors in the streets that we did not have the stomach for such an enterprise, but the time to heed that was then. Now all that pulling out can do is make matters worse, like the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. And the way we have shuffled the deck, we could wind up with something far worse than the secular autocracy that was in place before.
But now that Bush's rah-rah "I'm An American and I Have A Big Penis" war has gone sour, he seems willing to trade in the "Marine Hymn" for the the "Ballad of Sir Robin," who "Bravely turned his tail and fled." But then, it worked for him so well during Vietnam, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
"Bring the troops back home" is very popular with the anti-war crowd. Most democratic candidates are advocating this as the solution to the problems Dubya has created over there. It's a bad solution though, because it ignores the fact that WE made a mess of the place. But as flags that were being waved a year ago get draped over coffins today, more and more people seem eager for a pull out. And now it looks like the Bush administration, always more mindful of the next election than of the Right Thing To Do, appears eager to look for a way to pull out of Iraq in time to get re-coronated, er elected, to the throne, er presidency of the US. That, anyway, would seem to be the latest from a meeting with Paul Bremer.
There are problems with this. The first is that, left to itself, an Iraq that has to be rebuilt by Iraqis after being destroyed by the U.S. is not going to be very friendly to the U.S. Bush began this enterprise having been told by protestors in the streets that we did not have the stomach for such an enterprise, but the time to heed that was then. Now all that pulling out can do is make matters worse, like the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. And the way we have shuffled the deck, we could wind up with something far worse than the secular autocracy that was in place before.
But now that Bush's rah-rah "I'm An American and I Have A Big Penis" war has gone sour, he seems willing to trade in the "Marine Hymn" for the the "Ballad of Sir Robin," who "Bravely turned his tail and fled." But then, it worked for him so well during Vietnam, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.