Partitioning Iraq: the Inevitable Next Step
This week brought encouraging news for Americans eager to end our military commitment in Iraq. Two Republican senators who have previously supported the Bush position, Richard Lugar of Indiana and George Voinovich of Ohio, have bravely spoken up in favor of a more realistic future strategy. With mainstream Republican support for the Bush position fading, the USA’s inevitable withdrawal will be hastened. The big debate is drawing to a close — in fact, it’s all over but the spinning. So what will happen in Iraq once coalition forces step away?
Nobody knows how events will unfold, but one result seems highly likely: Maliki’s central government will dissolve — perhaps quickly, perhaps slowly and painfully — and a Shi’a-dominated government will prevail in the majority of the country. But the Sunni and Kurd strongholds are too well-entrenched and well-organized to yield, so Iraq will exist for the near future as three nations.
Is this a good or desirable outcome? Well, not really, but since peaceful happy coexistence doesn’t seem to be gaining ground, it’s better than the alternative (subjugation and military oppression of the minority by the majority, or, as in the Saddam days, subjugation and military oppression of the majority by the minority). Here’s the Middle East for the foreseeable future: two Palestines and three Iraqs. Since the Middle East’s national boundaries are largely artificial lines drawn by imperial fiat after the fall of the Ottoman empire anyway, it’s hard to say how offensive or destabilizing this de-nationalizing will feel to the people of these lands. I really don’t know.
But I’m glad these Republican senators are delivering their sane messages to confused Americans eager for any type of future direction. It’s the right step forward.
July 6th, 2007 at 10:22 am
The human element we overlook is - pride. One of the top tiers in Maslowe’s hierarchy, but out of sheer ignorance, we ignore it. The Palestinian problem is one of pride, akin to the US problem of slavery and segregation. Not that we can’t live long, happy and fulfilled lives as slaves or the poorest members of a caste system. But one always sees that ‘catch.’ That - they don’t think we’re as good as they are, as ‘human’ as they are.
It’s a gnawing pain spreading unrelenting bitterness around everything else. In a direct contrast, our pride as Americans is killing us and our planet. ‘I’m proud to be an American’ and ‘God bless America,’ are the greatest examples of spitting on everyone else. Like saying ‘God bless and keep my soldier safe; you can fuck everybody else, God, I don’t care. Just keep my husband/son/brother safe and to hell with the rest of them.’
Well, the rest of them are somebody else’s husband/son/brother too…duh. How can we be so stupid as to not know that? Perhaps every other country wants God to start blessing them, and to start fucking America…duh. Maybe a Paki would say ‘I’m proud to kill Americans ‘cause they think they’re better than me.’
And all we do is to fan the flames of this raging hatred. Only in America, the American dream, the American spirit. You can love your neighbor as yourself - that is the solution, a simple yet do-able solution. But you can’t love people who spit on you because they think you’re inferior. It isn’t possible; it isn’t in our nature.
Consider, the meaning of words. ‘We’re number one!’ actually means - you’re fucking garbage. It’s a challenge, and others are anxious to take up that challenge.
July 9th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Did I ever tell you about the day I hung out with Dick Lugar? Good times, good times.
In other news … how does that verse go … first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. There has to be a blog handbook parable there somewhere, I think.