Already seen. ...
You probably read that motherfucker's speech today equating Iraq pullout w/ Vietnam pullout. Here's an excerpt from wikipedia re the rise of the Khmer Rouge and resulting genocide in Cambodia.
Historians have cited the U.S. intervention and bombing campaign (spanning 1965-1973) as a significant factor leading to increased support of the Khmer Rouge among the Cambodian peasantry. Historian Ben Kiernan and Taylor Owen have used a combination of sophisticated satellite mapping, recently unclassified data about the extent of bombing activities, and peasant testimony, to argue that there was a strong correlation between villages targeted by U.S. bombing and recruitment of peasants by the Khmer Rouge. Kiernan and Owen argue that "Civilian casualties in Cambodia drove an enraged populace into the arms of an insurgency that had enjoyed relatively little support until the bombing began,[3]. In his study of Pol Pot's rise to power, Kiernan argues that "Pol Pot's revolution would not have won power without U.S. economic and military destabilisation of Cambodia" and that the U.S. carpet bombing "was probably the most significant factor in Pol Pot's rise." [4]Sphere: Related Content
5 comments:
article on this comparison from the economist
Yes, a debacle which I think was forseen/planned on from the beginning--create a quagmire; the prospects of exiting it are terrible, and we therefore must stay in. Continued occupation, mission accomplished.
i think claiming that this administration foresaw the current grim situation in iraq is giving them far too much credit. why would they ever want to be in this position? who would knowingly enter a "quagmire"? what did they (bush, cheney, rumsfeld, etc.) hope to gain?
clearly they knew the al-qaeda-iraq link was bullshit, and they hadn't been forced to declare they were there to "liberate" iraq yet. this leads me to think they thought they could quickly kill saddam hussein, which was bush's way of dealing with what he perceived to be his father's unfinished business, and assume control of the oil production, and sway mideast sentiment, through a puppet regime.
regardless of what the administration thought what would happen, i agree that they always planned on being in iraq a long time. i just don't think they wanted that presence to be as heavily armed as it has had to be. remember how eager they've been to say, 'it's over! mission accomplished!' and 'we'll enter baghdad in a parade of flowers and well wishes from the people!' it's just wishful thinking for a underdeveloped plan gone horribly awry.
Look at the 1994 video in which Cheney outlines the reasons for not toppling Saddam in Gulf War I (when he was secretary of defense). (I don't have YouTube access right now to provide the link but it's easy enough to find; check the MoveOn website.) Anyhow, Cheney predicts that we would have seen exactly the kind of sectarian fighting and resistance we're seeing now.
So to me that constitutes foresight.
And so why did we invade Iraq ostensibly unprepared for what Cheney and everyone else (including all of us here on this blog) knew awaited us?
Again, I just don't think the plan was so underdeveloped. The goal was long-term presence in the Middle East, not just Iraq, and I think the administration's way of achieving that was to get into Iraq in such a way that it would be near impossible to get out. That also means deferring success indefinitely (like the capture of bin Laden [we all know he's in Pakikstan on the Afghan border] must be deferred). I give the administration no credit in terms of benefits of the doubt re their good intentions, etc etc, however misguided. I do give them the credit of knowing, like we and any semiintelligent person knew, and like Cheney said, that a new democratic Iraq government wouldn't go off smashingly. Because of this I have the most cynical view or their intentions.
In the this way the war isn't much of a failure. We're in Iraq, the Democrats have done little to get us out (even if the Democrats gain the presidency reparations are unlikely), we've recently increased our troop load, and there's ever talk of expanding the attack to Iran.
here is the video of cheney in 1994 commenting on the quagmire of an invaded iraq
Post a Comment