Letters to the Editor
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Sorry
I don't want one cent or one US life spent to set up a latter-day imitation of the Mubarak regime in Iraq.
I'm sorry that George Bush correctly reasoned that he could get re-elected, throw some bills at Haliburton, and jam some federalist society guys on the supreme court, by starting a pointless war with Iraq. But I didn't support that, and it (obviously) didn't serve American national interests overall.
I voted against Bush twice.
I'm sorry that the crazy crap, which I was always against will have after-effects long after the US leaves. And I do care. I wish Iraqis could sue Bush and Cheney.
But what I support, and what I hope we can get, is for Americans to get out of Iraq, as completely and quickly as possible. I think that's reasonable. Of course, the closest I can get to that is whatever version a Democrat goes for if elected, but that's fine; I'll take something over nothing.
I think the whole "we invaded them for nothing and did them no good, so now we have to occupy them indefinitely as a moral obligation" argument is crap.
Saddam Hussein wasn't going to live forever anyway; they would have had to deal with this sooner or later. Let's let Iraqis govern Iraq.
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Americans live the easy life, ignorant of harsher truths.
Not all strongmen tyrants are sadistic madmen, and life under Saddam couldn't have been a 1984 scenario or they wouldn't have had such a well developed higher education system and such a modern society.
We're devoted to our Sunday School notions of "democracy," but our democracy is actually an oligarchical republic. No nation on earth has a true democracy. And then who do we elect? A tinpot strongman who bullies us and other nations.
Our "good friends" the Saudis are at least as sadistic to their people as Saddam was to his, but without the hysterical press coverage we just assume they must be alright.
Truths in other parts of the world are heresies here in America.
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Let's draft Lee Kuan Yew to run the show - now there's an idea!!
I agree completely with h_lance on this one. This idea of Omar Fekeiki is a perfect recipe for the ugliest despotism one can only imagine; and would no doubt bring about nothing other than a greater disaster, but possibly exponentially worse.
The faster we get out, and the faster we open up multilateral diplomacy involving the surrounding nations - especially Iran - the faster some kind of solution will arrive for this pandora's box.
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A fascinating article
Omar Fekeiki's ideas are against what I believe in, but I really enjoyed hearing his point of view. A brave man in a deadly place ...
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The essential first steps to 'save Iraq'...
Omar Fekeiki's plan for Iraq omits a couple of crucial issues:
1) Adequate acceptance by the US (and the world) that the US (and the UN) had behaved criminally in Iraq right from 1990, by imposing sanctions on the Iraqi people for the crime that Saddam committed by invading Kuwait (and it should be noted that he did that invasion with direct US encouragement!) As Fekeiki observes: "Life in Iraq began to collapse in 1990, after the United States and the United Nations imposed crippling sanctions to punish Saddam for invading Kuwait. Fekeiki said the sanctions had catastrophic consequences. 'Everything that Iraq is going through right now is because of what happened during the sanctions...'
2) Adequate acceptance by the US that GW Bush and Gang have committed war crimes in Iraq - and by the world that we have not done enough to protest/prevent those war crimes. By acquiescing to the plans of that criminal gang, the US has also become a war criminal. By dealing with the war criminals who rule the US today, the rest of the world is also guilty of those war crimes. Until US and world citizens decide to impeach, throw out of power and adequately punish these war criminals who actually did the crimes, all US citizens, and all of us around the world, are guilty!
For instance, the article notes that "Fekeiki also pointed out that life under Saddam was not an unrelenting nightmare. 'Other than being afraid of saying the wrong thing in the wrong place, I had a pretty normal childhood.' "
Well then, just consider life now in Iraq under the merciful attentions of GW Bush and Gang:
IT'S AN UNRELENTING NIGHTMARE FOR EVERYONE THERE!
-- GSC
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Chandy:
I'm sure living under Saddam was an unrelenting nightmare for many, even if it wasn't one for Mr. Fekeiki. At any rate, I think there may be some merit to his ideas, but I didn't think this was a particularly good article. Just reciting what some young journalist happens to think without giving any of the counterarguments to his position isn't very helpful.
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A third option...
I'm extremely grateful that someone is at least talking about an alternative to the two unpalatable options this shemozzle has been boiled down to by the US press and political process.
Maybe it won't work, and there are certainly a number of things not considered in the article. Like, who exactly is going to pay for the reconstruction Mr Feikeiki talks about? It should be the US, by justice, but I doubt the American public will accept the bill. And how exactly is Iran to be brought on-side? Etc, etc.
However, it should be remebered that stupid, blinkered, black-and-white thinking got us all into this debacle, and if we try to get out by the same method, we shouldn't be surprised if the result is even worse. There are *never* only two solutions two a geopolitical problem. We must be open to discussing alternatives.
Let us hope this is only the beginning of a broader conversation.
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Reasly interesting artical
I forwarded it to my BC.
I don't know, I'm actually heading back there in a month or 2 (regardless of elections, I have one of those jobs that neither candidate is talking about pulling out) and holding out a lot of hope that we (by "we" I mean the world) can figure out how to really salvage this s$#@sandwich. I remember always thinking...even while we were rolling up highway 1...that this was a bad idea, but also I don't think anyone here would like to see Iraq become "like the Gulf States" more than me. If it can happen....I don't know.
First thing I thought about while reading this was Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia. Something to that extent. I thought the same thing back in 03, but now I wonder if it is too late for that. Honestly, I think it is a somewhat unlikely near future.
Time will tell. I think the key now is that we need to all agree that we (again, by "we" I mean just about everyone) share one common ground, that is that everyone wants the violence to stop. NeoCon, Hippie, republican, democrat, arab, kurd, turkman share that wish, so we need to all get on that page and go from there.
I don't know, but like I said, I'm heading back soon, because regardless I love my job (which is essentially making sure people dont die), I just hope the smart people in the nice suits figure out how to make that job a bit more easy.