|
wow, what an explosion of bile....
let's summarize the situation one more time:
the administration claimed hussein had wmds.
the un inspection team did not concur.
the un inspectors appear to have been right.
the unsc believed the teams on the ground over the administration.
the administration claimed that iraq was a security threat to the us. partly on the basis of the wmds (not true), partly on the basis of some vague link to "international terror" (also not true).
the administration failed to persuade the unsc that its case was compelling,
it turns out that it was not compelling because it was false.
clearly, the problem is the united nations.
the human rights argument that was floated later is a joke. the entire history of american foreign policy since world war 2 (and before, but less consistently) demonstrates that it is a joke.the problem is not that saddam hussein was not a bad guy, but that the american have no problem with bad guys who murder their population to stay in power so long as that bad guy is politically convenient. thats the way "we" work.
clearly the problem is the united nations.
the war in iraq was about opposing a neocon vision of american national interests to that of the un, how national interest is defined in the charter.
the neocons thought the war would be short and simple--totally wrong, but hey, when it comes to members of the right, no error, no matter how huge, should carry any political consequences.
clearly the problem is the united nations.
the idea was to insert the american state, in its military capacity, as above international law, the idea of which the neocons hate because their entire politics assumes the nation-state as primary. the un does too, in fact, but that seems secondary to them.
for the gambit to have worked, the war would have had to be as they fantasized it would be--a short heroic war of liberation.
well it did not turn out that way.
they had no plan for that.
over a thousand american troops, and uncounted iraqis, combattants and civilians alike, have died because the neocons fucked up. there is no sense of liberation. there is nothing but chaos with no obvious way out. there is a consistent undermining of the american position internationally, both in terms of "moral" arguments and in terms of military power.
that the americans deployed their military in iraq and then found themselves caught where they are is about the worst thing that could have happened from a long-term security viewpoint for the u.s.
clearly the problem has to be the united nations.
why iraq in the first place? because of the neocon understanding of the first gulf war. they saw the un working against their john wayne understanding of american national interests, which for them would have required that the americans roll into baghdad in 1991.
the war is theater.
obviously, the problem is the united nations.
__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
|