The Price of Progress

[unhappycamper]

The Price of Progress
By Larry Johnson on Aug 31, 2007 in Current Affairs


If you caught the intellectual lightweight, Michael O’Hanlon, on CNN this morning you would have been treated to a masterful display of toadying and sucking up that puts the “sick” in sycophant. O’Hanlon continues to insist that his DOD arranged and controlled trip this summer to limited areas of Iraq proved beyond doubt that the surge is working and we are progressing in Iraq.

Of course his confident claims are not attended by any benchmarks or empirical evidence. So as a public service we will take a look at the specifics in Iraq and you can judge for yourself whether or not we are making progress and whether or not we are getting value for our money and the blood of our sons and daughters.

~snip~

And the list goes on. Sunnis have walked away from the Maliki Government. What passes for a government has been on vacation for a month and no significant agreements regarding the equitable allocation of oil resources or the rights of former Baath party members have been achieved.

As I warned in a blog more than a month ago, the Bush Administration and hacks like O’Hanlon are insisting things are better in Iraq. But, fewer deaths in certain neighborhoods has an alternative and darker explanation. Violence is down because there are fewer people. The absence of respiration is not a sign of life.

~snip~

How many American lives and how many billions of dollars must we expend in Iraq ostensibly to make America safe? We can not afford to be the sole peace keeper in the world. We should not be enabling the Iraqi army and police who continue to swear allegiance to sectarian leaders rather than embracing national interests. This is ultimately a problem the various Iraqi factions must sort out. US troops should not be in the middle of this dispute.

If US roads and bridges were in great shape. If American schools, particularly in inner cities, were the envy of the world. If every American had access to health care, then I could tolerate wasting $3 billion a week. But asking almost 3 Americans per day to die in Iraq? Not worth another drop of our blood.


Rest of article at: http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2007/08/31/the-price-of-progress/