Why is Roger Cohen an idiot?
Because he still thinks, despite everything, that invading Iraq and unleashing a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, caused over 2 million of them to flee their homeland, led 50,000 Iraqi women to prostitute themselves in Syria to survive, poisoned Iraq’s environment and children with depleted uranium dust from our munitions, killed and maimed thousands of Americans, civilians and soldiers alike, and cost a staggering $437 billion US dollars and counting, was, and remains a good thing for us to have done:
The price of “stability” safeguarded by cynicism is worth recalling at a time when the Middle East’s name is instability. Whatever else the bungled Iraq operation has been, it marked the end of American buttressing of a poisonous Middle Eastern stasis and a murderous Stalinist regime.
It is also worth recalling that it was in the time of quiet malevolence, back in 1998, that Osama bin Laden declared: “To kill Americans and their allies – civilians and military – is an individual duty for every Muslim.”
Malign stability did not work, not in Iraq or Saudi Arabia. It produced a backlash that ended America’s self-image as sanctuary protected by two wide oceans.
The global jihadists were not created by the Iraq invasion. They were thriving on American policy prior to it. […]
Fashion is a poor compass. The next time a car bomb goes off, remember Saddon al-Saiedi, a 36-year-old Shiite army colonel, father of two, abducted by Saddam’s goons on May 2, 1993, and never seen again.
As he went, so went numberless others, without a bang. Totalitarian hell – malign stability – holds no hope. Violent instability is unacceptable but not hopeless. Baghdad is closer to Sarajevo than we have allowed.
Not only that, but he repeats right wing, neocon talking points to support his argument for a foreign policy of making a bad situation worse. That’s why he’s an idiot. Send him an email at rocohen@nytimes.com and ask him when the New York Times decided that to be a “liberal” means advocating a policy of engaging in illegal wars in the name of creating utter chaos. Because if that’s what a liberal is, count me out.
Ps. Also ask him if he has any “skin in the game.”
