Weasel words on Iraq: Sunday Times

[emad]

June 26, 2005

Weasel words on Iraq



The liberation of Iraq from the murderous dictatorship of Saddam Hussein remains a good deed in a sorry world. As the silent witness of the dead in Srebrenica, Rwanda, Congo, Darfur and Zimbabwe attest there are a lot worse fates than to be saved by western intervention. But while it is one thing to defend the decision to topple Saddam, it is quite another to argue that every course that followed has been right. News reports show the daily horrors of life in the Sunni triangle. Revelations — such as our reporting of the Downing Street memo — have made it clear that the White House and Downing Street were less than frank with the people in the countdown to war. In this climate it is counter- productive to respond with Panglossian assurances that everything in Iraq is now for the best in the best of all possible worlds. The cameras and the documents may not show the whole picture but they do not lie.

This refusal to acknowledge reality has been damaging. If advocates of the war are not telling the full story about the post-war security mess, their words with regard to the bigger picture of the insurgency will be deemed to be equally untrustworthy. There were not enough coalition troops in Iraq in the immediate aftermath of the invasion. Security broke down and the insurgents were given a breathing space in which to establish themselves. But this truth is simply denied, persuading nobody. It adds conviction to the idea that the whole project is somehow illegitimate.

Two weeks ago Vice-President Dick Cheney said that the insurgency was in its “last throes”. He offered no evidence for this assertion. Instead, a recent CIA report on the insurgency argued that the jihadists had learnt how to improve their techniques and the constellation of battle hardened terrorists developing in Iraq risked becoming a training ground for terror across the world.

In one sense it is understandable that neither President George W Bush nor Tony Blair wants to admit the grave worries about what may develop in Iraq and the huge difficulties in turning a country from three decades of Ba’athist dictatorship into a thriving democracy. Emphasising the positive is important. There are indeed strong positive signs. The economy is recovering. Much of Iraq is relatively untouched by the insurgency. The elections were an inspiring sign of the Iraqis’ desire for democracy, just as the development of an internal Iraqi militia shows that there is an appetite among the Iraqis themselves to defeat the terrorists. There are also splits emerging between the Sunni nationalists and foreign jihadists.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1669483,00.html

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. "...the idea that the whole project is somehow illegitimate"

SOMEHOW illegitamate? It was illigitamate from the beginning-you don't invade a country that hasn't invaded you, has not been a threat, that is being monitored by the UN. And since its now come out that the US was bombing and planning long before the start of the war, one could say it was illigitamte befroe the beginning as well.

[pretzel4gore]

2. the only ones being conned is US

http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030524-iraq-bribes01.htm

snip>
Us Army Chief Says Iraqi Troops Took Bribes To Surrender Dollar Notes Easier To Take Than Bullets; Iraq: The Aftermath
General Tommy Franks: Iraqi troops were bribed'

In-Depth Coverage By Andrew Buncombe

SENIOR IRAQI officers who commanded troops crucial to the defence of key Iraqi cities were bribed not to fight by American special forces, the US general in charge of the war has confirmed.

Well before hostilities started, special forces troops and intelligence agents paid sums of money to a number of Iraqi officers, whose support was deemed important to a swift, low-casualty victory.

<snip

[geckosfeet]

3. Classic rich boy tactics, buy them off. Throw your money around.

Just like shrubbish and his family. Patrician pigs who bully and buy their way with money.

BTW,, thanks for the whopping tax break Mr.George Bush president ruler of the free world commander cuckoo banana's,,,, I will follow you anywhere with my little tax return in hand!