08-21-2004, 12:54 PM
If the shoe fits, wear it.
There is a lot of bad news coming out of Iraq, a place that the US broke by creating a power vacuum in the belief (right or wrong) that changing the cycle of dictators there would improve the Mid East, and any number of other reasons that have been beaten into the dust.
The US incurred an obligation to do some repair. That is a work in progress which is not being helped by any number of players, both indigenous and from beyond Iraq's borders, who have decided to take their chances at using the slowness of "re pressurizing" Iraq to "full up" status for their own ends. No surprise there. Jackals always come to a wounded beast for a feed. The nations of Europe drooled all over the Ottoman Empire for a few decades before carving it up after W.W. I.
But I digress. If all of the news is bad, or a lot of the news that gets reported casts the efforts at "nation building" in a poor light, as much of it does, it is only natural to counter with such good news stories as are available. Given how Saddam's son abused the Iraqi Olympic sports program, see the links from King Jim, also see the reasonably well researched Sports Illustrated article written before the war, it is good news, if only modestly, that Iraq is restroing some of the "being a normal place" features after a war. I personally was pleased as punch that Iraq bet Portugal 4-2 in the Olympic soccer match. Those folks have had to chew the turd for far too long. A little "Yay us!" can't hurt. It's good news, in the information age, news that is of course sucked into the information glut and what has been a fifteen year information war: global, ever since the Wall came down.
Information warfare has been with us since about . . . The Crimean War, and most Europeans STILL DON'T GET IT. Even fewer Americans get it, in my opinion. (I am sure someone will want to go back to the invention of writing, but I'm trying to limit this in scope.)
It never ends.
The attempts to influence others via means of information, disinformation, spin and and outright lies is continuous on all sides. Varying agendas, and ideas publicly batted around (cloning? genetically engineered grain?) continually compete for dominance. Play is continuous. There is no end to ANYTHING in geopolitics. Ever. Got it?
Is it any surprise that a goodly number of people in Iraq would like the US to just leave, and how about last week?
Heck no, the Americans are foreigners, and the average car mechanic in Mosul would be just as happy to be quit of foreigners. What he does not realize, as the average car mechanic in America probably does not realize, is that The World Won't Let You Alone, particularly if you live in Iraq, a place that for the past 3 generations has been big in global oil, and for the past 4 Millenia has been a battle ground, where the Tides of War constantly run in and out.
What you don't see, and probably don't bother to read, is the various efforts that continue on beyond Mr Bremmer's departure aimed at doing two things.
1) Maintain a certain level of stability which would allegedly allow Iraq's economy to restore itself. War and civil unrest are bad for an economy, ask any Serb, ask any Israeli.
2) Enable a secure and viable election cycle that is bought into by the various factions who live in Iraq. <= You have absolutely no clue how hard that is to do, and I for one am not even sure it is possible.
On that last, what ever meets the "good enough" standard will still leave some folks grumbling. We have grumblers aplenty in the reasonably stable nation of the U.S. The screeching baboons in the cheap seats, such as yourself, will gaze through a soda straw and seek fault and imperfection, broadcast to you via sattelite every hour of the day.
The issue is not whether the US have gone in, at this point. For better and for worse, the US and its allies did. In doing so, the team incurred an obligation to help put the broken pieces back together and get things moving forward, forward into a future that is uncertain no matter how you hope it turns out. It's hard, maybe even impossible (by that I mean to keep Iraq from breaking along some natural social fault lines) and it may turn into an even bigger mess in the next five months, given the forces that are trying to pull the coutry of Iraq apart.
And you sit there whinging about someone pointing out a tidbit of good news.
Have you any idea how pathetic that makes you look? Petty?
Get some perspective, man.
In election season, the hot air density increases exponentially. Hmmm, looks like it has done so in this post as well. :( I'd rather see little bits of good news tossed out than yet another attack on __________ (<- Your choice of attackee here)
There is a lot of bad news coming out of Iraq, a place that the US broke by creating a power vacuum in the belief (right or wrong) that changing the cycle of dictators there would improve the Mid East, and any number of other reasons that have been beaten into the dust.
The US incurred an obligation to do some repair. That is a work in progress which is not being helped by any number of players, both indigenous and from beyond Iraq's borders, who have decided to take their chances at using the slowness of "re pressurizing" Iraq to "full up" status for their own ends. No surprise there. Jackals always come to a wounded beast for a feed. The nations of Europe drooled all over the Ottoman Empire for a few decades before carving it up after W.W. I.
But I digress. If all of the news is bad, or a lot of the news that gets reported casts the efforts at "nation building" in a poor light, as much of it does, it is only natural to counter with such good news stories as are available. Given how Saddam's son abused the Iraqi Olympic sports program, see the links from King Jim, also see the reasonably well researched Sports Illustrated article written before the war, it is good news, if only modestly, that Iraq is restroing some of the "being a normal place" features after a war. I personally was pleased as punch that Iraq bet Portugal 4-2 in the Olympic soccer match. Those folks have had to chew the turd for far too long. A little "Yay us!" can't hurt. It's good news, in the information age, news that is of course sucked into the information glut and what has been a fifteen year information war: global, ever since the Wall came down.
Information warfare has been with us since about . . . The Crimean War, and most Europeans STILL DON'T GET IT. Even fewer Americans get it, in my opinion. (I am sure someone will want to go back to the invention of writing, but I'm trying to limit this in scope.)
It never ends.
The attempts to influence others via means of information, disinformation, spin and and outright lies is continuous on all sides. Varying agendas, and ideas publicly batted around (cloning? genetically engineered grain?) continually compete for dominance. Play is continuous. There is no end to ANYTHING in geopolitics. Ever. Got it?
Is it any surprise that a goodly number of people in Iraq would like the US to just leave, and how about last week?
Heck no, the Americans are foreigners, and the average car mechanic in Mosul would be just as happy to be quit of foreigners. What he does not realize, as the average car mechanic in America probably does not realize, is that The World Won't Let You Alone, particularly if you live in Iraq, a place that for the past 3 generations has been big in global oil, and for the past 4 Millenia has been a battle ground, where the Tides of War constantly run in and out.
What you don't see, and probably don't bother to read, is the various efforts that continue on beyond Mr Bremmer's departure aimed at doing two things.
1) Maintain a certain level of stability which would allegedly allow Iraq's economy to restore itself. War and civil unrest are bad for an economy, ask any Serb, ask any Israeli.
2) Enable a secure and viable election cycle that is bought into by the various factions who live in Iraq. <= You have absolutely no clue how hard that is to do, and I for one am not even sure it is possible.
On that last, what ever meets the "good enough" standard will still leave some folks grumbling. We have grumblers aplenty in the reasonably stable nation of the U.S. The screeching baboons in the cheap seats, such as yourself, will gaze through a soda straw and seek fault and imperfection, broadcast to you via sattelite every hour of the day.
The issue is not whether the US have gone in, at this point. For better and for worse, the US and its allies did. In doing so, the team incurred an obligation to help put the broken pieces back together and get things moving forward, forward into a future that is uncertain no matter how you hope it turns out. It's hard, maybe even impossible (by that I mean to keep Iraq from breaking along some natural social fault lines) and it may turn into an even bigger mess in the next five months, given the forces that are trying to pull the coutry of Iraq apart.
And you sit there whinging about someone pointing out a tidbit of good news.
Have you any idea how pathetic that makes you look? Petty?
Get some perspective, man.
In election season, the hot air density increases exponentially. Hmmm, looks like it has done so in this post as well. :( I'd rather see little bits of good news tossed out than yet another attack on __________ (<- Your choice of attackee here)
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete