Posting about the news that Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp, author of the much-disputed "Shock Troops" article, has recanted his story, McIlheran attempts to use Beauchamp's alleged deceit to question the motives of the (as he calls it) "surrender-now side."
His final sentence of the post, however, was almost a striking condemnation of this entire misbegotten affair and the failure of the McIlherans on the right to honestly view the excursion into Iraq, rather than mouthing platitudes provided to them by this administration. If McIlheran had had the courage, this is what he would have written:
What good can come from the war
That was nearly the first honest thing you've said about Iraq, Paddy! Keep trying.
Yesterday I went to a party at a friend's house. This friend of mine is on a 2-week leave from Baghdad. He looks good and I was happy to see him doing well and enjoying his time with his wife and two kids.
ReplyDeleteFrom what he tells me, I have little faith the Iraqis can get their act together. Trying to force a Westernized style of government on a country with an ancient culture that is very different is the proverbial square peg in round hole.
I am not cut and run. I think getting Iraq on their feet to be a healthy nation with a democratic governance is a worthy goal. I just don't know if it's an attainable one.
I am proud of him and his work. But, I am at a point where I don't think this cause is worth any American lives. It is Iraq's time to sh!t or get off the pot!
I can't imagine anyone disagreeing with you that somehow raising up Iraq to join the democratic nations of the world is a worthy cause. The question has always been was it our job to try, to force it on them, because as you say, democracy has never found fertile ground in that area of the world.
ReplyDeleteSome would use Russia as another example of a nation where democracy is doomed to failure.
Roland, most of us are proud of your friend's work ... at least those that matter and want this nation to be the best it can be.
FYI: It is not racist to say that that entire area still must find a way to grope into the 20th century (they'd still be 100 years behind the rest of the world). It's really a shame because some of mankinds' greatest achievements arose from the Arab world ... however, their own tribal instincts, coupled with the damage done to the area's psyche by 100s of years of colonialism have left these people very bitter and seemingly unable to rise above the petty.
Agreed OS...it's basic human psychology. They have to want these changes. You can't force dramatic societal change upon them.
ReplyDeleteI met an Iraq-born man at this same party. He has been a US citizen for 20 years and is now a State Department translator who worked with my friend in Baghdad.
He wishes that his people would make the changes we're talking about. But he admits that many who yearn for modernity and freedom don't stay in Iraq, they emmigrate elsewhere.
My buddy says that the amount of influence from Saudi Arabia and Iran is overwhelming. So where this leaves Iraq when we pull out will probably be a widespread civil war. Will it become a puppet state of one of those two?