WP: What Next [in Iraq]?

[grytpype]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/18/AR2006081800983_pf.html

What Next?

By Daniel L. Byman and Kenneth M. Pollack
Sunday, August 20, 2006; B01

The debate is over: By any definition, Iraq is in a state of civil war. Indeed, the only thing standing between Iraq and a descent into total Bosnia-like devastation is 135,000 U.S. troops -- and even they are merely slowing the fall. The internecine conflict could easily spiral into one that threatens not only Iraq but also its neighbors throughout the oil-rich Persian Gulf region with instability, turmoil and war.

The consequences of an all-out civil war in Iraq could be dire. Considering the experiences of recent such conflicts, hundreds of thousands of people may die. Refugees and displaced people could number in the millions. And with Iraqi insurgents, militias and organized crime rings wreaking havoc on Iraq's oil infrastructure, a full-scale civil war could send global oil prices soaring even higher.

However, the greatest threat that the United States would face from civil war in Iraq is from the spillover -- the burdens, the instability, the copycat secession attempts and even the follow-on wars that could emerge in neighboring countries. Welcome to the new "new Middle East" -- a region where civil wars could follow one after another, like so many Cold War dominoes.

And unlike communism, these dominoes may actually fall.

For all the recent attention on the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, far more people died in Iraq over the past month than in Israel and Lebanon, and tens of thousands have been killed from the fighting and criminal activity since the U.S. occupation began. Additional signs of civil war abound. Refugees and displaced people number in the hundreds of thousands. Militias continue to proliferate. The sense of being an "Iraqi" is evaporating.

Considering how many mistakes the United States has made in Iraq, how much time has been squandered, and how difficult the task is, even a serious course correction in Washington and Baghdad may only postpone the inevitable.

(much more at link)

[LynnTheDem]

1. Illegal immoral "supreme crime" invasions & occupations don't work.

They never will.

Thank God.

[whistle]

2. What happened in every country where John Negroponte left his

...signature?

<snip>
February 18, 2005

Negroponte: a Resume of Death Squads, Deceptions and Bribery
Right Man for the Job, For the Wrong Reasons
By LARRY BIRNS

Yesterday President Bush named John Negroponte to be the new director of national intelligence. As the man responsible for managing 15 intelligence agencies, we find this appointment extremely alarming due to major unsavory aspects of his professional history centering on the massive misuse of his authority as U.S. ambassador to Honduras from 1981-85. In fact, given his calm manner and his proven Machiavellian philosophy, he may be the right man for this new James Bond-slot even if it means the diminishment of democratic principles, which has been the hallmark of his career wherever he has been assigned.

Negroponte's stint in Honduras was filled with chicanery and deception. As a result of the immensely compromised record he compiled there, rather than being rewarded with this new and elevated position, he should be facing proceedings concerning the role he played in the numerous human rights violations that occurred during his Honduran watch ­ nearly 300 dissidents "disappeared." Affidavits and testimony by Honduran survivors have reported on his involvement in sanctioning, protecting or covering up these death squads. Also, during the time Negroponte spent at the Tegucigalpa embassy, millions of dollars in bribes were paid to corrupt Honduran officials to allow room for the U.S.-backed contras to stage attacks on the Sandinistas in neighboring Nicaragua.
<more>
http://www.counterpunch.org/birns02182005.html

[wellst0nev0ter]

3. Those Authors Should Get Down On Their Knees

And BEG for forgiveness before anyone should take them seriously anymore. Lousy punks, they ignored even their own advice when they cheerlead for this war.

[wellst0nev0ter]

4. And What Chutzpah

How Iraq got to this point is now an issue for historians (and perhaps for voters in 2008); what matters today is how to move forward

As Matthew Yglesias said, I seem to recall a certain "threatening storm" that goaded the gullible into this shitmire in the first place.






















moron.