Nobody's perfect. Stuff happens. We all make mistakes. This, however, isn't about mistakes. It's about sabotage.
The United States has sabotaged, perhaps irrevocably, the viability of the Iraq state and the future of the Iraqi peoples.
It happened partly through arrogance, partly through sheer stupidity and partly out of self-interest - taken together, a lethal combination.
Arrogance and stupidity are the very hallmark of Dick Cheney. He's the fool who believes that America's military prowess is enough to imbue it with diplomatic invincibility. That's the nonsense all these neocons spin. The world has had six years to observe how this "what we say, goes" attitude works in practice and, stripped bare by an unbroken succession of failures, the mantra looks just plain stupid.
It was arrogance that led Cheney's boys to believe they could fix their own intelligence and stupidity that led them to believe no one would catch on.
It was arrogance to believe they could conquer Iraq in short order and stupidity that led them to send a third of the soldiers they needed for the job.
It was arrogance that caused them to believe Iraq's Kurds would lick the boots of their American saviors and stupidity that led them to let the Kurds incorporate their own constitution, the very articles of their secession, into the constitution of Iraq.
It was arrogance that made them believe they would be able to institute a secular government of their choosing to replace the secular government of the man they would send to the gallows. It was the stupidity of this that led them to ignore the reality of Iran and Iraq's Shiite majority.
It was arrogance that led them to declare "Mission Accomplished" and their profound stupidity that left their military exhausted, nearly broken and firmly stuck in the Mesopotamian quagmire.
Their arrogance and stupidity has left a country in ruins and its peoples in desperate straits. And now, having brought these gifts to Iraq, the White House wants to ensure civil strife for decades to come thanks to an oil law, drafted by Americans to serve America, that, if enacted, will eventually lead to revolt when Iraqis come to realize they have been deceived and cheated.
America's oil law for Iraq is an act of sabotage. For the sake of Iraq and any slim hopes of peace that remain for that region, let's hope that Iraqi legislators recognize the trap that has been laid for them before it's too late.
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