"the protesters did oppose trade, that is certainly how many were perceived by the media"...,
2003-12-03 14:46:59
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CalPundit gets on mah bus. We...,
2003-12-04 13:43:35
the past and future history of your imperial project:
let's string together some reading Juan Cole has generously provided for us today: Iraqi political
parties, US/UK military forces and the US' CPA are all mistrusted by over 70% of the Iraqi populace; the Brookings Institution puts together a conference of respected witnesses to the campaign in Iraq who coincidently think its gone bonkers; and then the USG announces plans to build a paramilitary counter-insurgency organization out of those same political parties that 70% of Iraqis don't trust.
What fool said you can't spread democracy at the point of a gun? This is obviously going to work out great. We go in with all but the very best of "intentions", kill maybe a few ten thousand people, muddle about rebuilding Western interests and maybe fix a few school windows, talk about "nation building" while we begin shoring up unpopular elites the planners had their eye on from the beginning, start accidentally killing bystanders in the middle of an insurgency, hand off the problem to armed forces commanded by the same unpopular elites, etc.
Don't blink - while it may only be plans for under a thousand paramilitary troops that, they promise, will "leave their political identity at the door" - the "plan is still very fluid". I'm sure that's what was intended when they left a pack of mysoginists and warlords in charge of Afghanistan, so don't
expect any of the following to happen: we will publically brush our hands of the affair in time for our national elections, continue subsidizing what has become a campaign of violence and repression by our local allies against the majority of the population, spreading enough misinformation to confuse the domestic public until they can't be bothered to know or care anymore, and end up in bed with another highly repressive, pro-Western regime, only, of course, because of our well intentioned efforts to liberate a people suffering under a fate meted out purely by the destiny of all our past and well intentioned efforts to liberate them.
History: it just works like magic!
Plus: Brother Henley finds a job opening with the CPA for anybody who knows how to make a graph in Excel. "Power goes up, power goes down" indeed.