A Washington Post story detailing the "coalition"'s difficulties in "pacifying" Iraq lets the cat out of the bag in a few different places.
First, a former CentCom big-wig laments that, "If we don't get this operation moving soon, the opposition will continue to grow, and we will have a much larger problem." Does this sound like somebody who believes that the resistance is comprised only of "members of the old regime" on one hand, and "disgruntled Iraqis, upset about house searches or whatever" on the other?
Second, we learn that:
Because the war was so narrowly focused on Hussein's government in Baghdad, a large part of the Iraqi population does not feel as if it was defeated, said retired Army Col. Scott R. Feil. "As I heard one Iraqi say, the Americans defeated Saddam, but not the Iraqi people, so the psychology of the loser is not present," he said.
Ah, so, the goal of the war was not to "liberate" the Iraqi population, but to defeat it. Well, that clears that up.
Meanwhile, the lovable Senator Lugar the other day thundered that, "The idea that we will be in just as long as we need to and not a day more -- we've got to get over that rhetoric. It is rubbish! We're going to be there a long time." Oooookay. That's pretty explicit. Not to be outdone, a "senior military official in Washington" opines that, "You have to go in and tell them: 'We're gonna do what we did in Germany and Japan. We're gonna write your constitution. We're gonna install your government. We're gonna write your laws. We're gonna watch your every move for a decade, and then maybe you'll get a chance to do it yourself.'"
Any other pre- and post-war pretexts yet to be officially disabused? WMD? Check. Al Qaeda link? Check. Welcomed with open arms? Check. Making America safer and/or dismantling worldwide terrorist networks? Check and check. It's nothing to do with oil? Check. And now we can once and for all put the liberation of the brave people of Iraq angle to bed as well.
Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.
There's an interesting quote by Bremer as well, speaking of the amorphous resistance, which seems more and more to include the Iraqi people:
"We are going to fight them and impose our will on them and we will capture or... kill them until we have imposed law and order on this country.... We dominate the scene and we will continue to impose our will on this country."
How did these mediocrities get to be so arrogant? As long as that attitude prevails, we'll never have a quiet world.
Wow. Some of the hyperpatriots on your list seem straight out of a comic book. Let me be equally in-your-face, so to speak. I applaud the Iraqis in their resistance to Bushism. The Bush regime killed thousands of their kids and left many times that number maimed, all on the basis of a lie. In order to understand the costs of unilateralism and the vileness of the war, Bush's America needs to suffer scores of assassinations and the huge politico-economic burdens of an unpopular and prolonged occupation.
The real America already understands this and is being stirred into action. Hyperpatriots, enjoy your brief season of foreign adventures and self-righteousness. It's about to end. And given the shifts in the tax regime plus the average income and education level of a bubba, you're also the poor, dumb sods who're to be stuck with the tab.