If the Dems set a date for withdrawal it’s bad. If Cheney sets it, it’s good.
But Cheney said that by the middle of January 2009, it will be clear that “we have in fact achieved our objective in terms of having a self-governing Iraq that’s capable for the most part of defending themselves, a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, a nation that will be a positive force in influencing the world around it in the future.”
All of that by 2009? “Yes, sir,” he replied.
This man has his rosy-colored defibrillator humming again..
Unless we are secretly arming and funding all sides of the Iraqi catastrophe, we’ll only be able to hold the lid on for so long. Unless we have a solution for the Shia-Sunni Schism.
Americans are focusing in on the situation in a myopic way that will leave us ‘shocked’ when instability begins to pop-up all over the Middle East as sectarian violence spreads to previously stable regions, even as Iraq is cowed. The war that will last a generation is not between the U.S. and Terrorists, it is between Shia and Sunni, with the U.S. keeping it even enough and hot enough to last for years and years.
The Iran-Iraq War went on for 10 years at our insistence. When Saddam dared to end it he instantly became a super-villian. We want our endless war between customers back so we can sell arms and capitalize on the chaos and the endless hunger for our weapons and services it creates.
I just can’t figure if we will eventually allow the House of Saud to fall – and perhaps even the holy sites of Mecca and Media – or place them in ‘charge’ of what remains of the remaining populations.
I found this interesting bit of shorthand on an Egyptian Blog (note the absence of the ‘Mega-Bush vs. Al Kaider’ paradigm):
Here’s wats gonna happen.
- Da US cuts and runs
- Da Shia in Irak start killing the remnaining Sunnis.
- Da Saudis move in big time to kill the SHia.
- The Iranians, who have been having lotsa fun destabilizing Irak, move in and clean the Saudis clock. Big time. The Saudis are a bunch of (un-battle tested) wusses.
- Da US, having cut&run, now run back in and cut up the Iranians
- Da Egyptians shit their britches.