Juan Cole reminds us of some important facts:
A treasure trove of guerrilla documents, according to the NYT, shows that 41% of the foreign jihadis in Iraq come from Saudi Arabia, which is also a major source of funding for them. Another big group comes from Libya, with Yemenis the third largest cohort. There were none from Lebanon, despite constant US accusations of Hizbullah involvement. Of the some 25,000 alleged insurgents in US custody in Iraq, only 390 are foreigners. 4/5s of the Iraqis and nearly all the foreigners are Sunni Arabs. (The US appears to have never captured a Shiite Iranian fighter in Iraq.) The statistics raise the question of why US military officials are always focusing on Iran and Hizbullah so much, when they clearly are not very much of the problem, while never, ever, mentioning the Saudi issue. The Guardian has more. [emphasis mine]
We are clearly not being given the whole picture.
Tired of Bushco catapulting the propaganda?
Have you told Nancy Pelosi lately that if impeachment is off the table, so is democracy?
--the BB
3 comments:
If impeachment is off the table, then so is Pelosi as Speaker. There's an effort underway to remove Pelosi as Speaker, and make way for impeachment. ( Details )
I'm not positive either way at this point regarding the war. However, out of curiosity, what do you suppose is the solution when our country is attacked (assuming the attack didn't originate from our own government?)
When the country is attacked one takes strong, appropriate, and definitive measures. Had we continued to pursue bin Laden in Afghanistan at Tora Bora, we might have dealt with the perpetrator. Beyond that, terrorist actions are best dealt with through effective intelligence and police action. (Other nations have made progress in these areas where we have not.)
Instead we backed off and let him go and have not done much about pursuing him since then. Then we illegally invaded and occupied a nation that did not pose an imminent threat to us, had not attacked us, and was one of the few secular Muslim nations in the middle east. Of course Saddam was awful; one need not mimimize that to note that he is one of several equally awful dictators in the world but that does not justify war in itself. We have strengthened Iran by weakening Iraq, created a recruiting and training ground for terrorists, and generally unleashed even greater chaos in the region; with the only significant "favorable" outcome being the enriching of those who profit from war. By diverting our resources from Afghanistan and effective pursuit of al Qaeda we shot ourselves in the foot. It is not only a foreign policy disaster of huge proportions it is a clear moral evil. War is never desirable but sometimes necessary. Our engagement in Iran is a vile act based on a huge web of lies and manipulation by an immoral government: ours.
Post a Comment