Post-Zarqawi - a dark and cynical perspective
juan cole has an article up on salon... (you'll either have to be a salon subscriber or suffer through a short advertisement to access the full article...)
i have a terrible and growing suspicion... it started with my post of several days ago where ezra klein speculated that the reason bush has no iraq exit strategy is because he doesn't WANT one... so, here ya go...
we've got our military bases there... we have them more or less secured... we more or less have access to iraqi oil... we now have a key strategic position in the very center of the islamic countries and the middle east oil region... we are within easy striking distance of the various " 'stans" (kazakhstan, uzbekistan, etc.) and their energy resources... trying to think like bushco, tell me, why do we need to do anything more in iraq other than keep our bases and the green zone secure...? what does it matter that the insurgents keep slaughtering their own people...? sure, we have to LOOK like we're trying to create a stable iraq and, yeah, we need to occasionally do something like capture a zarqawi, and, sure, that means we're going to lose some of our troops now and then but, basically, don't we already have what we went there for...?
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Whatever the meaning of the killing of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by a U.S. airstrike earlier this month, it has not lessened Iraq's violent nightmare, or calmed tensions in the Middle East. Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called him "the prince of martyrs" and vowed revenge on the U.S. Some reports suggest that the two U.S. soldiers captured at Yusufiyah were tortured and killed by Zarqawi's shadowy successor. The three weeks after his death have witnessed daily bombings with dozens of casualties throughout Iraq. And Zarqawi's demise has stirred up trouble throughout the region, as controversies on how to respond to it have erupted among secularists and fundamentalists, Sunnis and Shiites.
i have a terrible and growing suspicion... it started with my post of several days ago where ezra klein speculated that the reason bush has no iraq exit strategy is because he doesn't WANT one... so, here ya go...
we've got our military bases there... we have them more or less secured... we more or less have access to iraqi oil... we now have a key strategic position in the very center of the islamic countries and the middle east oil region... we are within easy striking distance of the various " 'stans" (kazakhstan, uzbekistan, etc.) and their energy resources... trying to think like bushco, tell me, why do we need to do anything more in iraq other than keep our bases and the green zone secure...? what does it matter that the insurgents keep slaughtering their own people...? sure, we have to LOOK like we're trying to create a stable iraq and, yeah, we need to occasionally do something like capture a zarqawi, and, sure, that means we're going to lose some of our troops now and then but, basically, don't we already have what we went there for...?
told ya it was cynical... Submit To Propeller
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posted by profmarcus at
6/28/2006
