Originally posted by WestPoint23
His government is corrupt and ineffective...
So the US invaded their country, deposed their dictator, dismantled their government, abolished their army, gutted their civil service, occupied their
cities, killed 100's of thousands, destroyed their infrastructure and now it is the Iraqis' fault that it's all falling apart. Ahh, if only the
stink of failure, incompetence, lies and fraud washed off so easy by just playing the old "find a goat" blame game.
Andrew Bacevich, West Point graduate, retired colonel and professor of international
relations at Boston University, takes up the question that will leave a rancid stench upon the US for years to come:
Fighting over who lost Iraq
The protagonists divide into three broad groups.
The Bush dead-enders. Although dwindling in number, President Bush's defenders will ascribe failure in Iraq to a loss of nerve, blaming media
bias and liberal defeatists for sowing the erroneous impression that the war has become unwinnable. Bush loyalists will portray opposition to the war
as tantamount to betraying the troops. Count on them to appropriate Ronald Reagan's description of Vietnam as "an honorable cause." Updating the
"stab in the back" thesis, they will claim that a collapse of will on the home front snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Baghdad as surely
as it did in Saigon.
The buck-stops-at-the-top camp. Adherents of this second view are currently in the ascendant, attributing the troubles roiling Iraq to massive
incompetence in the Bush administration. In a war notable for an absence of accountability, demands for fixing accountability are becoming
increasingly insistent. Parties eager to divert attention from their own culpability are pointing fingers. Senior military officers target Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Congressional Democrats who voted for the war and neoconservatives direct their fire against Rumsfeld and Bush. The theme
common to all of these finger-pointers: Don't blame us; the Bush team's stupidity, stubbornness and internal dysfunction doomed the American
effort.
The conspiracy theorists. Even before the United States invaded Iraq, critics on the far left and far right charged that powerful groups
operating behind the scenes were promoting war for their own nefarious purposes. Big Oil, Halliburton, the military-industrial complex and Protestant
evangelicals said to be keen on defending Israel all came in for criticism and even grassy-knoll-style paranoia.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
Until US decides the truth, justice and accountablity are core values that will be strictly enforced by all, the miasma of this slacker dungocracy
shall continue to propagate and spread like a disease, as in a corrupt and ineffective US government creating more of the same.
Meanwhile, back at the goat ranch:
The summit was not cancelled, only delayed:
Iraqi leader, Bush meet amid turmoil
Baker recommends cut and run:
Iraq Panel to Recommend Pullback of Combat Troops
[edit on 30-11-2006 by Regenmacher]