Pray for successful vote in Iraq By Greeley

[jbfam4]

Pray for successful vote in Iraq

January 28, 2005

BY ANDREW GREELEY

http://www.suntimes.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi

Those of us who bitterly oppose the war in Iraq must hope and pray that the Iraq election is a success and that a strong and credible government will emerge from it. Even if we believe that the president's goal of establishing democracy in Iraq is madcap fantasy, we must still hope and pray that it can be done. Only if there is a semblance of an effective government will American troops begin to withdraw. The president must be able to spin the illusion of victory before he can announce the end of American occupation, perhaps at the request of a Shiite dominated government. If the election is a failure, the killing will continue indefinitely.


A democratic Iraq is the last remaining justification for war, now that the administration has been deprived of weapons of mass destruction and Iraqi complicity in the World Trade Center attack. Democracy in Iraq would not justify the war but it would at least mean that all the deaths were not completely in vain. The administration could claim that a victory in its campaign to bring "freedom" to every corner of the globe -- even to places like Belarus and Myanmar.

I have no doubt that she believed what she said, just as the president believes that he can dismiss the weapons fiasco by blaming the intelligence services of the world. Neither is deliberately lying. Both are firmly convinced that their own spin is the truth. The CIA, Americans must understand, failed to provide adequate intelligence and thus the president was not to blame for the error. The president, you see, does not make mistakes. Democracy in Iraq alone justifies the war. It is unthinkable that the CIA told the president what he wanted to hear.

The war will still be unjust, sinful, criminal. The people who re-elected President Bush will still have the blood of thousands of Iraqi on their hands. Spin cannot change those realities. Nevertheless, if spin can create clothes for the naked emperor so he looks victorious, Americans will no longer die in Iraq.

[Danocrat]

1. A little clarification please

Would that be Jesus' dad or Allah we'd be praying to?

[woofless]

2. What's the difference?

[Danocrat]

3. None

It was a joke highlighting the absurdity that religion plays in today's world. I hate when I have to explain my humor.

[kiraboo]

4. LOL. I have the same dry humor

and people are always taking me seriously. It makes me look like an idiot, I'm sure.

[Karenina]

5. The "election" is ALREADY a failure

Andrew Greeley, did somebody spike your drink? :shrug: