A little help, please?
Jan. 16th, 2007 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbSo, I was tapped by one of the college newspapers to write an opinion piece on Bush and Iraq.
'Eep!' says I. And various mutterings along the lines of, 'Why did I volunteer for this shit in the first place?'
(I know why I did it. Journalism occassionally pays, but you need a portfolio to get anywhere.)
Not being a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs, I thought I'd ask for some help with my homework. The piece as drafted is behind the cut: if anyone cares to point out my egregious errors, you'll have my gratitude. (Nothing else, but hey, it's the thought that counts, right?)
When Is Enough Enough?
"We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude."
-- George W. Bush, President of the U.S.A., January 2007.
George W. Bush has dug himself a deep hole in Iraq.
There have been, according to the official figures, 3,020 U.S. soldiers killed and 22,834 injured (at the time of this writing) since the start of the war. The civilian casualties among Iraqis dwarf comprehension: between 53,000 and 60,000 deaths by military action have been recorded, but that may well just the tip of the iceberg. The British medical journal Lancet estimated that over 100,000 excess deaths -- deaths that would not have occurred if the 2003 invasion had not taken place -- had occurred in Iraq at the time of its publication: that number is certainly higher now.
The late Saddam Hussein's regime may have been an oppressive dictatorship, guilty of crimes against humanity, but five years ago Iraq was a relatively stable nation, not a civil-war-in-progress. Hussein's execution has not reversed the increasingly sectarian nature of the ongoing violence, nor will it: by carrying out the death penalty on the day Iraq's Sunni minority celebrate Eid al-Adha, which commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim's (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his son Ismael for God, when it is forbidden under Iraqi law to execute the condemned on a major holiday, the Iraqi government -- the majority of which are Shi'ite -- offered a slap in the face to the Sunnis and a spur to the sectarian conflict. Nor was the manner of his trial and his execution beyond reproach.
The violence was bad before: it's not going to get better, and the odds are very much in favour of it getting quite a bit worse. U.S. troops in Iraq are slowly but surely losing their ability to keep what little peace remains. About the only thing the U.S. and Iran can agree on is the deteriorating state of Iraq. As one Iraqi blogger has noted, "An 8-year war and 13-year blockade are looking like the country's 'Golden Years'."*
There isn't much hope for stability in its future. I'm no expert in Middle Eastern affairs, but with or without American occupation, Iraq is looking -- to put it mildly -- pretty screwed.
In the long run, the cost to the region may be worse if the U.S. forces attempt to stay. An organised departure would certainly be better for the U.S.: their armed forces are already stretched to the limit, even without the 20,000-strong 'surge' in force that Bush has committed to, in defiance of sense, reason and that guiding light of the politician, the opinion poll.
The Americans have no credibility in Iraq. It's a country they've all but destroyed, and the justification for the invasion was an outright lie. Barring a miracle, the hole Bush and his cabal of advisors began to excavate in 2003 will only get deeper and bloodier. U.S. troops, faced with the ongoing level of resistance to their presence, cannot stay in Iraq forever. Whether they stay or go, the civil war their presence engendered continues either way. If they go soon, though, the ensuing morass may end more cleanly and claim fewer lives. That is, if the Iraqis are lucky.
Going on the evidence to date, all the luck in Iraq is bad.
It's time and past time for the U.S. to pack up their shovels and go home.
*from http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com
Statistics from: http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/ and http://www.iraqbodycount.org/.
(Now you don't have to ask, because you know how I feel.)
(So will the whole college, if the editor takes it and they bother to read the paper.)
(I say again: eek.)
'Eep!' says I. And various mutterings along the lines of, 'Why did I volunteer for this shit in the first place?'
(I know why I did it. Journalism occassionally pays, but you need a portfolio to get anywhere.)
Not being a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs, I thought I'd ask for some help with my homework. The piece as drafted is behind the cut: if anyone cares to point out my egregious errors, you'll have my gratitude. (Nothing else, but hey, it's the thought that counts, right?)
When Is Enough Enough?
"We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude."
-- George W. Bush, President of the U.S.A., January 2007.
George W. Bush has dug himself a deep hole in Iraq.
There have been, according to the official figures, 3,020 U.S. soldiers killed and 22,834 injured (at the time of this writing) since the start of the war. The civilian casualties among Iraqis dwarf comprehension: between 53,000 and 60,000 deaths by military action have been recorded, but that may well just the tip of the iceberg. The British medical journal Lancet estimated that over 100,000 excess deaths -- deaths that would not have occurred if the 2003 invasion had not taken place -- had occurred in Iraq at the time of its publication: that number is certainly higher now.
The late Saddam Hussein's regime may have been an oppressive dictatorship, guilty of crimes against humanity, but five years ago Iraq was a relatively stable nation, not a civil-war-in-progress. Hussein's execution has not reversed the increasingly sectarian nature of the ongoing violence, nor will it: by carrying out the death penalty on the day Iraq's Sunni minority celebrate Eid al-Adha, which commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim's (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his son Ismael for God, when it is forbidden under Iraqi law to execute the condemned on a major holiday, the Iraqi government -- the majority of which are Shi'ite -- offered a slap in the face to the Sunnis and a spur to the sectarian conflict. Nor was the manner of his trial and his execution beyond reproach.
The violence was bad before: it's not going to get better, and the odds are very much in favour of it getting quite a bit worse. U.S. troops in Iraq are slowly but surely losing their ability to keep what little peace remains. About the only thing the U.S. and Iran can agree on is the deteriorating state of Iraq. As one Iraqi blogger has noted, "An 8-year war and 13-year blockade are looking like the country's 'Golden Years'."*
There isn't much hope for stability in its future. I'm no expert in Middle Eastern affairs, but with or without American occupation, Iraq is looking -- to put it mildly -- pretty screwed.
In the long run, the cost to the region may be worse if the U.S. forces attempt to stay. An organised departure would certainly be better for the U.S.: their armed forces are already stretched to the limit, even without the 20,000-strong 'surge' in force that Bush has committed to, in defiance of sense, reason and that guiding light of the politician, the opinion poll.
The Americans have no credibility in Iraq. It's a country they've all but destroyed, and the justification for the invasion was an outright lie. Barring a miracle, the hole Bush and his cabal of advisors began to excavate in 2003 will only get deeper and bloodier. U.S. troops, faced with the ongoing level of resistance to their presence, cannot stay in Iraq forever. Whether they stay or go, the civil war their presence engendered continues either way. If they go soon, though, the ensuing morass may end more cleanly and claim fewer lives. That is, if the Iraqis are lucky.
Going on the evidence to date, all the luck in Iraq is bad.
It's time and past time for the U.S. to pack up their shovels and go home.
*from http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com
Statistics from: http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/ and http://www.iraqbodycount.org/.
(Now you don't have to ask, because you know how I feel.)
(So will the whole college, if the editor takes it and they bother to read the paper.)
(I say again: eek.)
