A thunderclap of an Iraq article you should share with anyone still supporting this mess

[WilliamPitt]

I made myself read this three times back to back to back. This is what we have before us in Iraq, this is the present and the future, and if you happen to know/live with/endure anyone still in favor of the occupation, make them read this very carefully.

I don't get scared by newspaper articles very often, but this one...well, you'll see.

===

Iraq’s Curse: A Thirst for Final, Crushing Victory
By EDWARD WONG
Published: June 3, 2007

BAGHDAD

PERHAPS no fact is more revealing about Iraq’s history than this: The Iraqis have a word that means to utterly defeat and humiliate someone by dragging his corpse through the streets. The word is “sahel,” and it helps explain much of what I have seen in three and a half years of covering the war.

It is a word unique to Iraq, my friend Razzaq explained over tea one afternoon on my final tour. Throughout Iraq’s history, he said, power has changed hands only through extreme violence, when a leader was vanquished absolutely, and his destruction was put on display for all to see.

Most famously it happened to a former prime minister, Nuri al-Said, who tried to flee after a military coup in 1958 by scurrying through eastern Baghdad dressed as a woman. He was shot dead. His body was disinterred and hacked apart, the bits dragged through the streets. In later years, Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party crushed their enemies with the same brand of brutality.

“Other Arabs say, ‘You are the country of sahel,’ ” Razzaq said. “It has always been that way in Iraq.” But in this war, the moment of sahel has been elusive. No faction — not the Shiite Arabs or Sunni Arabs or Kurds — has been able to secure absolute power, and that has only sharpened the hunger for it. Listen to Iraqis engaged in the fight, and you realize they are far from exhausted by the war. Many say this is only the beginning.

President Bush, on the other hand, has escalated the American military involvement here on the assumption that the Iraqi factions have tired of armed conflict and are ready to reach a grand accord. Certainly there are Iraqis who have grown weary. But they are not the ones at the country’s helm; many are among some two million who have fled, helping leave the way open for extremists to take control of their homeland.

“We’ve changed nothing,” said Fakhri al-Qaisi, a Sunni Arab dentist turned hard-line politician who has three bullets lodged in his torso from a recent assassination attempt. “It’s dark. There will be more blood.”

I first met Mr. Qaisi in 2003 at a Salafi mosque in western Baghdad, when the Sunni Arab insurgency was gaining momentum. He articulated the Sunnis’ simmering anger at being ousted from power. That fury has blossomed and is likely only to grow, as religious Shiite leaders and their militias become more entrenched in the government and as Kurds in the north push to expand their region and secede in all but name.

Caught in the middle of the civil war are the Americans. To Iraq’s factions, they are the weakest of all the armed groups in one crucial respect: their will is ebbing and their time here is limited. That leaves Iraqis more motivated than ever to cling to their weapons, preparing for what many see as an inevitable plunge into the abyss.

“Everyone — the Sunni, the Shia — is playing the waiting game,” an Iraqi leader told me over dinner at his home in the Green Zone. “They’re waiting out the Americans. Everyone is using time against you.”

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/weekinreview/03wong.html?ref=world

[The Magistrate]

1. That Is An Excellent Article, Mr. Pitt

"We are paying a sum of millions yearly for the priviledge of living atop an ungrateful volcano."

[Warpy]

2. That is why I have a sinking feeling about the government's

two month hiatus coming up. I can't shake the feeling that they know the Green Zone will be under attack with the aim of obliterating every person and thing within it.

Despite Iraq's history of appalling violence, the region also has a history of building magnificent civilizations. Left to their own devices, they will do so again, but the transition from now to then is going to be a miserable one.

We are only prolonging the violence by staying there. We are only building decades of resentment throughout the Islamic world as we cling to the vain hope that we will accomplish something constructive there, whether it's the stable government the compassionate wish for them or the empire the PNAC crowd wants. It's all impossible. They will sort things out only after we are gone.

[Beetwasher]

3. Yup, Gettin' Outta Dodge

That's exactly what it is.

[Warpy]

6. Glad I'm not the only one sporting tinfoil.

:tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. I have the same sinking feeling

I've posted about it a couple of times here when the topic has come up.

Here's one of the statements I made in regards to this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=813454&mesg_id=814462

[malaise]

19. 100% correct

but Bush appears to want utter humiliation. He will get it.

[mike_c]

4. good article, shows the hubris of cultural ignorance that usually plagues...

...colonialists.

:thumbsup:

[TahitiNut]

8. Well said and right on point, imho.

The myopia of self-centeredness is a plague in this administration and, sadly, our body politic.

[Dhalgren]

5. Good gods! "Cut and run" is sounding better and better every day.

K&R...

[WiseButAngrySara]

7. 'Get out of Dodge', 'Cut and Run', Let's just 'Pull the plug' on

this insanity.

Excellent and thanks for posting.

[Bandit]

9. Declare victory and leave and have big ticker tape parade.

Only way out of this mess..Just fucking leave...NOW

[WilliamPitt]

11. .

[WilliamPitt]

12. Up with you.

[Buns_of_Fire]

13. The final sentence is enough to make your blood run cold

...Looking back on all I have seen of this war, it now seems that the Iraqis have been driving all along for the decisive victory, the act of sahel, the day the bodies will be dragged through the streets.

There is no military solution. I doubt there will be a political one, either. But now I know the answer to the oft-repeated statement, "but they're better off now than they were under Saddam."

No, they're not.

Thank you for posting this.

[Morgana LaFey]

20. I think you're entirely right

that they're not better off than they were under Saddam.

As I was reading about Iraq and the several irreconcilable factions during the buildup to the war, I came to realize quite against my will that maybe there ARE times and places where dictatorship is the right political solution. Of course, one would prefer a benevolent dictatorship, but that's not what you get, always.

Iraq can't work after what we've done to it, IMO. One solution that's obvious is to put it back and make nations out of what it was before the British cobbled a nation out of three disparate tribal groups. This is the Biden plan, I think. I'm not saying I'm FOR this -- what I'm FOR is disengaging ourselves from being the world's policeman and most of all geopolitical chessplayer. We've done as much damage as we can over there: bring our TROOPS home and bring our CIA black ops folks home and get our nose out of their business -- ALL nations internal affairs. We never did have the right, IMO, and I'm not aware of many places we actually improved, with the possible exception of Europe circa 1945.

[eridani]

29. When gung-ho jackasses point to ousting Saddam as an accomplishment--

--I just say that if it's some kind of an accomplishment, then so is cutting off someone's head to cure them of severe migraines.

[juno jones]

14. Which brings up those exit timetables that

might 'give hope' to the 'enemy' by letting them 'wait it out'. This article points to how bullshit that reasoning is. Goddammit, this is mesopotamia. They've waited out a few invading armies out in their 5000-year history, shucks, THEY ain't going nowhere. Forget the Hague, after we get our troops out, we just deport the neocon lot out to their precious fortresses in Iraq, along with their private security forces (cut from the public teat of course. They have oil-if they can keep it.). 'Sahel' sounds as good of a fate as any for those who have stirred this nest of hornets.

[EFerrari]

15. Great catch. K&R

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

16. Will, you ought to send this to Juan Cole.

I read his blog every day, and I have not seen a reference there to this article. I would really be interested in his take on the subject.

"Sahel" certainly is a new word to me. I guess I myself have a definite yearning for the sahel of the Bush Administration, so it is apropos that the word enter my vocabulary at this time.

[proud patriot]

17. we have got to get our troops out of there

x(

[NewJeffCT]

18. I've been getting so pissed over Iraq lately

that sometimes I feel like I'm going to snap.

and, I'm a generally laid back guy living a comfortable life in Connecticut. I can only imagine what the troops and the Iraqis are like.

[Disturbed]

23. The blame will be placed on the Iraqis by Rethugs & Dems.

After Sept. there will be a re-deployment of US Troops & Mercs. Neither majority of Rethugs or Dems will pull out troops from Iraq. They will be pulled out of harm's way as much as possible. It will be the Iraqi's fault that they cannot reach any sort of peace. In the meanwhile the oil will be protected, as will the US Embassy & those 14 bases.

[cyberpj]

27. Yes. Those darn Iraqis just didn't appreciate what we were doing to, er...., for them. nt

[Political_Junkie]

21. Great article

thanks Will.

[madrchsod]

22. we thought we could change thousands of years of history?

[srulifsonmiles]

24. thank you, i thought i would say why oh why is this news

... or high school history

seems to me we're surrounded by ... well, i'm not supposed to put anything inflammatory on this site

read well, read long (neutral enough?)

[wiggs]

25. There's a pertinent Hussein quote from after the invasion but before

his disappearance and capture. Wish I had kept it....something having to do with the American's losing in Iraq because they won't be able to stand the carnage, bloodshed, and body bags.

At the time, I remember thinking that it wasn't clear he was referring just to American deaths...he knew of course that Iraqis don't lie down, don't back away from death, and won't tolerate an invading force. There will be resistance until we leave.

That's not to say that our leaders didn't also know there would be long-term chaos, death, and tragedy. They may have known (LOTS of people were telling them), and may have chosen to go ahead anyway.

[LaPera]

26. I'm doubtful...

I've read these articles and I refuse to believe pugs are even near the abyss as it would be useless to be that hopeful. Thompson or Jeb will come to the rescue and either would be elected prez. Rove and the other neocons will pave the road to make it possible making it easier to steal the election.

[LibertyorDeath]

28. As long as the way is made clear for

ExxonMobil Corp, Royal Dutch/Shell Group; Amoco and BP to control

Iraq's oil wealth

Cheney could give a flying fuck about Iraq's internal power struggles.

Permanent American bases and control of the oil & fuck the rest is the current American policy

in Iraq.

The dead on all sides are the price of doing business for these corps...


Editorial

June 3, 2007, 6:59PM
Oily law
Protesters from Iraq draw attention to a law they fear will give control of their oil to foreign investors.

On Tuesday Iraqi oil union leaders will protest in Washington outside the offices of a consulting firm called BearingPoint. A contingent from the 26,000-member union of oil workers is on a 14-city tour to bring to the American people a heartfelt plea: Please separate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq from the passage of an oil law by the Iraqi Parliament.

With Congress pushing for benchmarks, the Bush administration has been pressing Parliament to pass the oil law. Administration and media focus has been on the provision that states that oil and gas in Iraq are owned by all its people in all regions and governorates. Unfortunately, the law does not stipulate how to fairly distribute oil revenues. Distribution of the nation's vast oil reserves is vastly unequal, and there is no system of mineral rights, which weren't needed under Iraq's national oil company.

This familiar controversy is not the source of outrage for the visiting union members. Their fear centers around the provisions in the 33-page law that have received little scrutiny in the media. They say the law forces privatization of the Iraqi oil industry, an industry that is responsible for almost 70 percent of the gross domestic product.

The nation's five trade unions, representing hundreds of thousands of workers, issued a statement that the law would amount to handing control over oil to foreign companies and undermining the sovereignty of the state and the dignity of the Iraqi people.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/4858332.h...

[EVDebs]

30. Travel channel -- Vacation destination of the Middle East,: Iraq

Sand sun ... well, that's about it.

[Preening Fop]

31. And to Understand, The United States is a Major Player in Murder.

Where is the CIA's
"National Endowment For democracy"
when our imperial empire needs them....?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

32. The long-term repercussions are quite serious not only for Iraq & US but also,...

,...the entire region.

Stooopid PNACers!!!!

[WilliamPitt]

33. One last bump

[Arkham House]

34. Wouldn't the Iraq Hawks use the "we're waiting you out" argument--

--as an excuse to *stay*? Maybe for the 50 years some of them are drooling about? If one believes in this debacle, seems to me this would just reinforce your desire to "maintain our national will" or some such rubbish...:-(...

[karlrschneider]

35. k&r on this...if it isn't too late

:kick: