{"id":938,"date":"2005-06-21T14:19:15","date_gmt":"2005-06-21T18:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/wordpress\/?p=938"},"modified":"2005-06-21T14:19:15","modified_gmt":"2005-06-21T18:19:15","slug":"america-is-the-problem-not-the-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=938","title":{"rendered":"America is the problem not the solution"},"content":{"rendered":"

It defies reason when people<\/a> speak<\/a> about what should or should not be done in Iraq’s best interest, analyses underpinned by a conventional wisdom the U.S. can and must “help” Iraqis establish “security”.<\/p>\n

What model supports the fantasy U.S. intervention = stability?<\/p>\n

It’s<\/a> not<\/a> Haiti<\/a>, or Afghanistan<\/a>, not Kosovo<\/a>, Ukraine<\/a>, or Azerbaiijan<\/a> (where it is poignant at least<\/em> that protestors are carrying placards with photos of George, since his administration funds the fraudster that keeps them down<\/a>), not the DRC<\/a> or Sudan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aren’t these do-gooders really saying…<\/p>\n

Don’t Let Them Surrender<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Too many times Americans have won a splendid war only to lose the peace. One problem is the end game, the whole problem of surrender, who we accept surrender from, on what terms, etc. During the Gulf War we approached perfection by not letting them surrender. First, we set the goal of “unconditional Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait.” When Iraq accepted these terms, we complained that they didn’t accept reparations, they weren’t clear about coming out with their hands up, and besides, we wanted to hear it from Saddam himself. When Saddam himself complied, we raised all the above objections, and we kept bombing, or “pounding.” (Hey guys, how about coming up with a synonym for “pound”? If I had a dime for every time the media used “pound,” I’d be a very rich man.)<\/p>\n

And then, when they obviously began to withdraw, we said: “That’s not ‘withdrawal’ (good); that’s ‘retreat’ (bad).”<\/p>\n

Demanding “unconditional surrender,” as we did in World War II, was great, but again we got bogged down in end-game problems. Clearly, the best strategy for the end game is never to accept any surrender at all. Let’s just keep “pounding” the enemy till nobody moves. Let’s keep it simple and clear-cut. Or to use the common American slogan of divine impatience: “Let’s get it over with,” or “let’s finish the job.” If we pound until we kill them all, until nobody moves, then we won’t have to worry anymore about “losing the peace.” The peace will be ours forever, the job will be finished forever.<\/p>\n

To put a more rigorous twist on the old song: <\/p>\n

We’ll be over, We’re comin’ over, And we won’t be back Till there’s nothin’ over there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

America<\/a> delivers<\/a> alright<\/a>, but it’s never been peace<\/a> and security<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Updated @2349 6\/21\/05<\/u>:<\/p>\n

Add Egypt<\/a> to the list. And this<\/a> to the security link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It defies reason when people speak about what should or should not be done in Iraq’s best interest, analyses underpinned by a conventional wisdom the U.S. can and must “help” Iraqis establish “security”. What model supports the fantasy U.S. intervention … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-f8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}