Welcome back to Iraq Cheneystan! Nation Building may continue unless Mr. Obama shows a backbone to the GOP. The starting point for any meaningful analysis of our possible role should be that “Iraq” is a country in name only. The Kurds want nothing to do with the Arabs, and the Sunni Arabs and the Shia Arabs want only to be dominant over the other. Is it a US issue because of our attempt at Nation Building over the last decade?
Is it our issue if the Sunnis (with the help of other Sunnis outside of Iraq) secede and try to create a reasonably homogeneous country of their own?
Is it our issue if the Kurds (with the help of other Kurds outside of Iraq) try to create a homogeneous country of their own?
If we learned anything from Vietnam and (the possibly former) Iraq, it should be that American power is limited; we should use it first, where there is a reasonable chance that we can actually accomplish something useful, and at a reasonable cost, and second, where it will advance either our national interests or humanitarian interests.
Giving more weapons or another open checkbook to PM Maliki is unlikely to satisfy either part of that equation.
Cheney & Bush tried Nation Building without success:
GOP is upset that Democrats wander off script on Iraq:
GOP wants us to have another:
In other news, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) got primaried:
According to Nate Silver, only seven Republicans running for the US House have lost their primaries since 2010, counting Cantor, but not counting those in redistricting races.
That would put the success rate of Republican challenges in the range of 1% to 2%.
Cantor’s shape-shifting and ambition meant that he had few friends in his own party. Certainly, his willingness to torpedo deals worked out between Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner showed his lack of ability to compromise, and his disloyalty to his leader.
Down goes Cantor. Remind you at all of Saddam?
The problems in the middle east are not that different from what has happened at other places as some sort of rebalancing occurs. The wars in the lowlands took decades were the result of the end of one empire replaced by something else. Southeast Asia and Africa both have taken decades to recover from colonialism (Africa is still unfinished). While we fucked up in Iraq, we are only part of the story, a story we cannot write the finish too.
took a second look. great cartoons. funny how the political right has made a fetish of telling us we can’t blame Bush II for what he did. he did so much, how can you not!