Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Iraq and Hubris Juan Cole’s testimony to the Senate committee on  is really worth reading.  There is such a lack of knowledge about Iraq in the U.S.   One of the first undertakings of the anti-war movement during the Vietnam era was a series of teach-ins, that made the case that the U.S. was not acting to liberate the Vietnamese, but rather suppressing a nationalist revolution.   Juan Cole is a professor at the Univ. of Michigan who has spent his career studying the political dynamics of Islam, especially in Iraq and Iran.   He says, in essence, that the U.S. had a complete fantasy picture of what Iraq was actually like when they destroyed the Hussein regime.  As a result, they alienated some groups, tried to set up a puppet government with others who are still on the U.S. payroll, and in essence felt Iraq was a “blank slate” on to which they could imprint their Neocon ideas right down to the fire sale of  State assets to cronies and friends.   The reality is that the U.S. can either accept a democracy free to elect leaders whom the U.S. may not like, or it can thwart that democracy as essentially a colonial power.  If the later choice is made, Juan Cole sees the U.S. militarily involved in Iraq for a generation.   We all need more knowledge to get beyond the slogans.  Here is a good place to start. 10:12:31 PM   comment []

© Copyright 2004 Toby Sackton. Last update: 5/5/2004; 9:03:13 AM.