Newsweek/Dickey: Points of No Return

[kskiska]

The Bush administration’s decisions in the Middle East are as irreversible as they are disastrous. But being president means never having to say you’re sorry

Christopher Dickey

Ever since it became clear toward the end of 2001 that the Bush administration was headed for war with Iraq, I’ve been thinking about John O’Hara’s classic 1934 novel “Appointment in Samarra.” Although the title refers to a town north of Baghdad,* the story is actually about a Cadillac dealer in Pennsylvania. After a few too many drinks one Christmas eve, he makes a fatally stupid gesture, and nothing he can do afterward will retrieve the moment or stop the tragic series of events it sets in motion.

This administration is a lot like that Cadillac dealer, I’m afraid. You can see it trying to reverse course, struggling to back away from one rash misjudgment after another in the Middle East. But it can’t even begin to set things straight, and at this point I’m not sure anybody can. Among students of the region—in government and in think tanks, in the United States and around the world—there’s a rapidly accumulating sense of doom, and I use the word advisedly.

The open letter that 52 “former British ambassadors, high commissioners, governors and senior international officials” sent to Prime Minister Tony Blair earlier this week echoes the general sentiment among experts. “The time has come to make our anxieties public,” they say, begging Blair to bring the Bush administration to its senses, or back away from “policies which are doomed to failure.”

It’s obvious that many U.S. officials, and possibly the president himself, now understand how badly we’ve screwed up. But they keep coming up with yesterday’s solutions today, and those won’t work anymore. “The history of post-Saddam Iraq is one of successive, short-lived attempts by the U.S. to mold a political reality to its liking,” says a just-released report from the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. “With each false start and failed plan, realistic options for a successful and stable political transition have become narrower and less attractive.”

more…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4854960/

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. They (Bushco) are just trying to get through NOV now, making it

up as they go along. Whatever will keep their reptilian fingers clinging to power. Then they can sort it out, cut and run, or consolidate or crush, after they don't have to worry about the "voting".

[Tina H]

2. thanks, I am requesting the O'Hara novel from the library now nt.

[Veggie Meathead]

3. By John O'Hara standards, it should be called a short story

and not a novel. And a powerful one at that.Probably one of his finest.I think it uncannily captures our predicament in Iraq.You will like the story and the eerie parallel to the current events.

[enough]

4. Devastating summation of the situation -- this is a MUST read

Thanks for the post, kskiska.

[reprehensor]

5. *bumpenstein*