ASSHAT GOES TO THE GREEN ZONE
Betting on the Un-manliness of the Iraqis Jun. 13th, 2006 @ 04:39 pm
June 13, 2006
By A Whitney Brown
Bush's latest photo op with Iraqi President al-Maliki was a bit of a back-handed compliment. This man is supposedly the head of state of a 'sovereign nation'. Imagine if a foreign leader could fly secretly into Washington, land a chopper on the White House lawn, and barge into the President's quarters with 5 minutes notice!
"Just checking up on you, Bush," this leader might say, as our President stuttered and mumbled some kind of appropriate greeting. Then he makes the President stand there unshaven, in his pajamas while he takes a few pics, hops back in his chopper and flies away. "Watch yourself, Bush," he yells, "I'm keeping my eye on you."
Pretty humiliating, wouldn't you say? The real message of this photo op is that al-Maliki has no more power than the White House dog. Less. Maliki gets this treatment and has to be grateful.
It brings up the larger point of what we are doing in Iraq. Put yourself in the shoes of the Iraqis. A foreign power invades your country, tortures your people, kills tens of thousands of civilians, some on purpose, many more through simple casual negligence.
Regardless of your differences with your fellow countrymen, the reaction we are expecting from these people; that they ally themselves with our interests against their Arab brethren is betting on their servility.
So our entire enterprise in Iraq, as I see it, is based on the expectation that the Iraqi people are the most servile, dishonorable, unmanly, indeed, doglike, people on the face of the earth.
Judging by their behavior under Saddam, this might seem to be a pretty good bet. They let this tinhorn bully kick them around for decades. But adding up Abu Ghraib, Haditha, and the countless other incidents like them that haven't made the news, even the Iraqis may have their limits.
We know that al-Queda is not like that. That's probably why Saddam hated them so much. They are not cowards. Fortunately, it would seem most of the al-Queda in Iraq are not Iraqis, which bodes well for us. But the fact that Saddam himself was Iraqi indicates that not all of them are such sniveling weaklings.
"As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down...." That's the doctrine. But it's a two-edged sword. If the Iraqis ever really did stand up, we'd be airlifting people off rooftops in the Green Zone in short order. There are 25 million of them, after all. We can only hope the training we are giving them doesn't include anything that builds their self-esteem. If they get anything resembling pride or patriotism, we're fucked. Just my thoughts.
A Whitney Brown, awhitney@malicetowardnone.com
June 13, 2006
By A Whitney Brown
Bush's latest photo op with Iraqi President al-Maliki was a bit of a back-handed compliment. This man is supposedly the head of state of a 'sovereign nation'. Imagine if a foreign leader could fly secretly into Washington, land a chopper on the White House lawn, and barge into the President's quarters with 5 minutes notice!
"Just checking up on you, Bush," this leader might say, as our President stuttered and mumbled some kind of appropriate greeting. Then he makes the President stand there unshaven, in his pajamas while he takes a few pics, hops back in his chopper and flies away. "Watch yourself, Bush," he yells, "I'm keeping my eye on you."
Pretty humiliating, wouldn't you say? The real message of this photo op is that al-Maliki has no more power than the White House dog. Less. Maliki gets this treatment and has to be grateful.
It brings up the larger point of what we are doing in Iraq. Put yourself in the shoes of the Iraqis. A foreign power invades your country, tortures your people, kills tens of thousands of civilians, some on purpose, many more through simple casual negligence.
Regardless of your differences with your fellow countrymen, the reaction we are expecting from these people; that they ally themselves with our interests against their Arab brethren is betting on their servility.
So our entire enterprise in Iraq, as I see it, is based on the expectation that the Iraqi people are the most servile, dishonorable, unmanly, indeed, doglike, people on the face of the earth.
Judging by their behavior under Saddam, this might seem to be a pretty good bet. They let this tinhorn bully kick them around for decades. But adding up Abu Ghraib, Haditha, and the countless other incidents like them that haven't made the news, even the Iraqis may have their limits.
We know that al-Queda is not like that. That's probably why Saddam hated them so much. They are not cowards. Fortunately, it would seem most of the al-Queda in Iraq are not Iraqis, which bodes well for us. But the fact that Saddam himself was Iraqi indicates that not all of them are such sniveling weaklings.
"As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down...." That's the doctrine. But it's a two-edged sword. If the Iraqis ever really did stand up, we'd be airlifting people off rooftops in the Green Zone in short order. There are 25 million of them, after all. We can only hope the training we are giving them doesn't include anything that builds their self-esteem. If they get anything resembling pride or patriotism, we're fucked. Just my thoughts.
A Whitney Brown, awhitney@malicetowardnone.com
posted by Tapir's Rants at 5:54 PM
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