...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Friday, June 13, 2003
      ( 3:12 PM )
 
A Little Place Called Mogidishu

This is not turning out well. The whole Iraq thing, I mean. I have held off much comment on the entire situation because it's being thoroughly blogged everywhere, and many more people have much better insights than I. But frankly, I can't let it go without saying something. The blame for the quagmire in which our soldiers now find themselves lies solely on the shoulders of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. The two of them (along with whichever other Administration cronies and yes-men egged this invasion on without a distinct plan for the obvious and realistic contingencies that would follow an end to formal combat) are criminals. The President cannot claim that he didn't know anything, unlike his predecessor Reagan. The President committed himself to this plan of action and put himself up as the front man for the decision and for the intentional misleading of the citizens of this country and the world.

So, just like his father with Somalia, he has led soldiers into a situation that is murderous. They are being murdered, and they are murdering others daily. Many criticized the reaction to what happened in Mogidishu, i.e., the pulling out of the soldiers. Americans can't stand for casualties like that, they said. But we're standing for it now. Where is the outcry about what is occurring in Iraq? My other question is: What happened to the "provisional government?" Wasn't it supposed to establish some civil law and order? I am no supporter of this empire building, occupying policy, but reality now forces us to deal with what's actually happening, not the "what if's" anymore.

And hard reality is that if the U.S. military is going to commit to an occupation of that country, then they're going to have to commit. That means really occupying, not just pretending they are there to keep the peace. That means no more wishy-washiness about who is in charge. The Iraqis are just going to have to deal with the fact that they have gone from one dictator to another, at least for now. What did they expect? What did we expect? What did BushCo expect? Nothing realistic, obviously. But how else is there going to be anything but catastrophic devastation as time drags on? If the American public isn't comfortable with this option, then it needs to examine its rabid support of George Bush and his administration.

It took years for the Gulf of Tonkin incident to be revealed as the hoax that it was. It's taken only months for the truth to emerge in this attack that was justified by the possible "domino theory of terror-supporting nations." Let's just hope it takes only one more year before this administration and the Congress learns its lesson the hard way.

Meanwhile, our soldiers are dying and so are the people of Iraq. Still. And soon the U.S. military is either going to have to be very harsh or it's going to have to leave. And if that happens, the people in Iraq, in all their newly-found freedom will find themselves where the people of Somalia are now existing: on the edge of suffering and the sharp blade of violence. No, please, peoples of the world, don't bother thanking us.

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