WHAT ARE WE DOING THERE?
The shifting sands of the stated rationale for invading Iraq have now settled on the only real problem and the only real accomplishment of the Bushies’ Desert Adventure. Hussein is gone, to which everyone must say "hurrah", or else. As for myself, I don’t believe anything my government says about Hussein or his regime. He may have ruled by terror, may have killed a bunch of people, may have tortured, may have raped. But I’m not going to believe any of that just because a Bushie says it.
But let’s assume, as we all must, that one of the world’s worst rulers is gone. International law notwithstanding, that’s Great. The mission is accomplished. Let’s bring those poor suffering soldiers home.
But, it is said even by those in the status quo government who opposed the invasion before and/or after the fact, we must stay and "finish the job." We must bring "democracy" to Iraq, nay, to the Arab World. Despite our irresponsibility in persecuting an invasion under knowingly false pretenses, we now have a "responsibility" to keep our soldiers in harm’s way. One or two dead soldiers a day is the price we must pay for...what?
In order to figure that one out, you have to go to the real reason for the invasion. That reason was strictly for geopolitical advantage imagined in the fevered minds of Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz in having a "friendly" Arab state right in the middle of the region and, not at all coincidentally, right next to Israel. Iraq was the Bushies’ target before they were Bushies, not because Hussein was the strongest bully in the region, but because he was the weakest. Unlike Iran, Syria or Saudi Arabia, Hussein’s Iraq – as a secular government in a majority Muslim nation – had yet to cut the deals with the religious leaders that found accommodation (at least) in those other countries. An invasion of Syria, for instance, would encounter much more resistance from many more of its community leaders who have more of a stake in its independence. Bully Hussein had no friends in his own country, and the popular resistance was non-existent.
Far from being a threat to anyone anywhere, Iraq was thus an empty hole into which the wet dreams of the pitiful Wolfowitz were easily poured. How easy it must have seemed to the Bushies, sidled up to their Risk game on the coffee table in the Situation Room, to imagine the joy of U.S. bases out of Saudi Arabia and into the new 51st state. With their drinking buddy Chalabi and other hand-chosen puppets ready to go "back home" to the land they abandoned like cowards decades ago, Iraq was to be an artificial island in a sea of disturbing trends.
So we can’t leave, you see, until this important work of building the Friendly Arab State is done. Of course, facts on the ground make it difficult to see how this will ever be accomplished. Despite the Bushies’ lies about Baathists and "foreigners" (how’s that for irony?) causing trouble in-country, the real source of the resistance in Iraq is true Iraqi nationalism. Resistance to occupation is a natural human reflex. Throughout world history, colonialists have always claimed to know what is best for the conquered. The "assumption" (apparently, once again, without proof) that the resistance is caused by Hussein loyalists or "terrorists" from outside the country is another desperate combination of wishful thinking and PR spin by the Bushies, who have shown a remarkable dedication to the Big Lie, even (especially) after it has been exposed.
It will be interesting to see how the new Iraqi constitution – currently being drafted by well-connected right-wing U.S. lawyers – will guarantee the continued U.S. presence and prevent the Muslim majority from getting the most votes in an election. In the meantime, our demoralized soldiers – mostly the sons and daughters of the poor and working class – will continue to get picked off, one by one, in the service of the geopolitical games being played by Cheney and company.
Cameras may be banned from their homecomings and Bush will continue to avoid the funerals of those he recklessly put in harm’s way. But, eventually, the chickens come home to roost. A year from now, Americans will have a chance to put an end to all of this misery caused by the Bushies.
7:12:14 AM 
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