The Even-More-Seldom-Wrong Charles Krauthammer today explicates the SWNIDish perspective that the mess in Iraq is largely a consequence of failed leadership.
Sir Charles suggests that the solution would be a new ruling coalition of moderate Shiites with Kurds and Sunnis. We hope he's right. But we think it's a longshot, for the very causes that Krauthammer cites for the present situation: the political inability to compromise one's sectarian loyalties for the good of all.
The messier but likelier solution is partition. Sadly, events in Iraq seem to be preparing the way for partition, much as they have in earlier partition situations. That is, people who live as part of a cultural minority in an Iraqi neighborhood or region are leaving to join their fellows in a region where they predominate. The same happened in India a couple of generations ago, and it is a process in part forestalled and in part ongoing in the Balkans.
2 comments:
I believe you may have things backwords. It is not that we suffer from failed leadership in Iraq. It is that we suffer from failed blogging in the US. Better blogging would have made a huge difference in the outcome of the Iraq occupation.
What we need is a ruling coalition of moderate bloggers (daily Kos and SWNID for example). We know I am right. The bloggers must learn to compromise one's separatist loyalties for the good of all.
Or if the coalition won't work, a better solution would be partition of the bloggers. Daily Kos could have its own site, and so could SWNID. Those who prefer one blog over another are already joining their fellows at their respective blogs.
The same happened in 2001 after 9/1. Why it is forestalled now I don't know.
Rustypants is qualified to lead the charge. GHWB believed in and campaigned on "peace through strength." The bloggers can lead a movement of "peace through partition" or "I will let you live if you blog over there and not here."
On the other hand, civil war might be cathartic, for those who survive anyway.
Of course, the Administration would have to get in on this. I can hear it now: "Bush got wired, people expired."
Post a Comment