Monday, April 05, 2004
Memo to Bush: Lose this heart and mind, and it's all over
It sounds like all hell is breaking loose in Baghdad's Shia neighborhoods. Here's a first hand perspective from a Sunni in Baghdad. The blogger, Zeyad, started his webblog to counter the "negative spin" put on news from Iraq's reconstruction, so for him to say
is very depressing indeed.
Not that he is right or anything like that; for one, he seems to harbor great distrust for Shias generally. And we've been here before: secular nationalist tyrant falls/dies, multiethnic state collapses into civil war---hello Yugoslavia. It doesn't mean that the only alternative for such societies is an iron fist, merely that transitions for divided societies are fraught with danger, and require a lot of thought, planning, effort, and cooperation to pull off. Whoops!
While I was in Houston, I talked with a friend who insisted that he thought Iraqis would be better off when the US leaves than they were under Saddam. I hope that's true, but I'm starting to worry.
I have to admit that until now I have never longed for the days of Saddam, but now I'm not so sure. If we need a person like Saddam to keep those rabid dogs at bay then be it. Put Saddam back in power and after he fills a couple hundred more mass graves with those criminals they can start wailing and crying again for liberation. What a laugh we will have then. Then they can shove their filthy Hawza and marji'iya up somewhere else. I am so dissapointed in Iraqis and I hate myself for thinking this way. We are not worth your trouble, take back your billions of dollars and give us Saddam again. We truly 'deserve' leaders like Saddam.
is very depressing indeed.
Not that he is right or anything like that; for one, he seems to harbor great distrust for Shias generally. And we've been here before: secular nationalist tyrant falls/dies, multiethnic state collapses into civil war---hello Yugoslavia. It doesn't mean that the only alternative for such societies is an iron fist, merely that transitions for divided societies are fraught with danger, and require a lot of thought, planning, effort, and cooperation to pull off. Whoops!
While I was in Houston, I talked with a friend who insisted that he thought Iraqis would be better off when the US leaves than they were under Saddam. I hope that's true, but I'm starting to worry.
