Thursday, June 23, 2005
Hobson's Choice
A soldier stationed in Iraq has posted a chilling, and thought-provoking, Kos diary. Reading it, I asked myself: "Are there any good ways to deal with the situation in Iraq that don't involve simply throwing the remains of it to the wolves?" There may be, but Bush will never implement them, not unless his party turns on him before the 2006 elections. He and his inner circle flat-out refuse to admit that they are losing, so they're not bothering to make any kind of contingency plans. In fact, it's become increasingly obvious that they have no plans of any sort other than to funnel contract money to Bechtel and Co., and to hold onto those fourteen-odd bases at all costs -- and even those plans aren't being implemented very well. For guys usually depicted as preternaturally smart in their evilness, they sure are self-defeatingly stupid. For example: As Juan Cole notes, they need Iran's help and goodwill just to stay the course in Iraq. Instead, they keep making noises about wanting to invade, which is so unthinkably stupid -- not to mention immoral -- that I wouldn't be surprised to see the Joint Chiefs over at the Pentagon resign en masse if Rumsfeld tried it. (But then again, I thought we'd see them resign over the invasion of Iraq, and that didn't happen. Shinseki and White were the only casualties.)
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