Monday, June 14, 2004
To Hell In A Handbasket
The Bush administration better hope that the Reagan-o-thon continues a little while longer to take some attention away from Iraq. Things are quickly falling apart as we approach the June 30th "turn over of power."
Since the new Iraqi government was named on June 1, dozens of civilians and foriegn workers have been killed and two members of the new government have been assassinated.
Meanwhile, the city of Fallujah has become exactly what the Bush administration does not want: a working theocracy facilitated by our own truce agreement.
When will we figure this out? We are failing. Bush can say that we are making progress as many times as he wants, but repeating a lie over and over still doesn't make it true. Democracy and Islam have basic fundamental differences that will not allow them to exist together. So the Iraqi's are left with two options: forfeit their religion for the vision of a foriegn government; or fight to protect their beliefs and values. I wonder what the United States would do if faced with the same situation?
Fortunately, people here in the U.S. are losing patience. On Wednesday, a group called Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change will release a statement condemming the Bush foriegn policy as destructive and dangerous to the American people.
The White House is already trying to spin this as irrelevant and too little too late, but the stature of the members of this group has to give them some credibility. Even those who served under Bush-the-Smarter and Reagan-the-Great realize how pathetic our current leadership is.
- There have been 17 car bombings and a near-daily string of other attacks in Iraq this month. On Sunday, 12 people were killed by a car bomb near a U.S. garrison in Baghdad, and gunmen assassinated another member of the new Iraqi government, an Education Ministry official.
Since the new Iraqi government was named on June 1, dozens of civilians and foriegn workers have been killed and two members of the new government have been assassinated.
Meanwhile, the city of Fallujah has become exactly what the Bush administration does not want: a working theocracy facilitated by our own truce agreement.
- Vigilante-style enforcement of religious edicts by the insurgents has been on the rise in recent weeks. Barbers have been warned not to shave men's beards. Several beauty parlors have been shut down, and four purveyors of illicit alcohol were publicly flogged and paraded through town in the back of a pickup truck last month, according to witnesses.
Townspeople insist that the insurgents' presence has all but quelled the outbreak of lawlessness that had beset the city as local authority broke down during the months of U.S. occupation.
"Fallouja is the safest it's ever been — you don't even have to lock your doors because no one will dare to steal," said Hamza Dari, a taxi driver. "I feel much more secure than before."
When will we figure this out? We are failing. Bush can say that we are making progress as many times as he wants, but repeating a lie over and over still doesn't make it true. Democracy and Islam have basic fundamental differences that will not allow them to exist together. So the Iraqi's are left with two options: forfeit their religion for the vision of a foriegn government; or fight to protect their beliefs and values. I wonder what the United States would do if faced with the same situation?
Fortunately, people here in the U.S. are losing patience. On Wednesday, a group called Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change will release a statement condemming the Bush foriegn policy as destructive and dangerous to the American people.
- "It is clear that the statement calls for the defeat of the administration," said William C. Harrop, the ambassador to Israel under President Bush's father and one of the group's principal organizers.
Those signing the document, which will be released in Washington on Wednesday, include 20 former U.S. ambassadors, appointed by presidents of both parties, to countries including Israel, the former Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia.
Others are senior State Department officials from the Carter, Reagan and Clinton administrations and former military leaders, including retired Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, the former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East under President Bush's father.
The White House is already trying to spin this as irrelevant and too little too late, but the stature of the members of this group has to give them some credibility. Even those who served under Bush-the-Smarter and Reagan-the-Great realize how pathetic our current leadership is.
