Thursday, August 19, 2004
"Bullets, not boobs..."
Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-NE): a real American patriot?
Call it liberation or occupation, a dominating American presence in Iraq was probably destined to be more difficult, and more costly in money and in blood, than administration officials claimed in the months leading up to the war. But it need not have been this difficult. Had the military been as meticulous in planning its strategy and tactics for the postwar as it was in planning its actions on the battlefield, the looting of Baghdad, with all its disastrous material and institutional and psychological consequences, might have been stopped before it got out of control. Had the collective knowledge embedded in the Future of Iraq Project been seized upon, rather than repudiated by, the Pentagon after it gained effective control of the war and postwar planning a few months before the war began, a genuine collaboration between the American authorities and Iraqis, both within the country and from the exiles, might have evolved. And had the lessons of nation-building -- its practice but also its inevitability in the wars of the 21st century -- been embraced by the Bush administration, rather than dismissed out of hand, then the opportunities that did exist in postwar Iraq would not have been squandered as, in fact, they were.these quotes are from an article last year that was the cover story in the November 2nd issue of The New York Times magazine titled "Who Botched the Occupation?" but it's even more relevant to post (or in this case, maybe re-post) now than it was back then since things have only gotten worse in Iraq in the nine months following.
The real lesson of the postwar mess is that while occupying and reconstructing Iraq was bound to be difficult, the fact that it may be turning into a quagmire is not a result of fate, but rather (as quagmires usually are) a result of poor planning and wishful thinking. Both have been in evidence to a troubling degree in American policy almost from the moment the decision was made to overthrow Saddam Hussein's bestial dictatorship.
And in Afghanistan:
- U.S.: Afghan battle leaves 50 dead (CNN.com)
And at home:
- Leading Indicators Drop in July Signaling the Economic Recovery is Losing Steam (ABCNEws.com)
Meanwhile...
Ted Kennedy "Mistakenly" Put On 'No Fly' List (TheKansasCityChannel.com)
Bullets, not Boobs: can I simultaneously agree and disagree with this one? (MSNBC.com via Nadine S.)
Benedict Miller (The San Francisco Chronicle via Nadine S.)
but on the other hand...
Doug "Paul Revere" Bereuter (Lincoln Journal Star via Zentronix)
and for New Yorkers:
- Counter Convention
- RNC: Not Welcome
- F-ck New York (via Kev W. and Rio Rocker | Note: this takes a really long time to load so let it ride)
- Trump the Game (iWon news via Nadine S. again!)
