I asked the $87+ billion question yesterday and now M. Takhallus of Sideways Mencken has a few ideas of what we might be able to do in Iraq. However, as expected, none of them are pretty, and it appears as if only one of them is truly feasible. I don’t think I have to tell you which option that is.
Personally, the only idea that makes sense for me is listed as number 3 on his list, but it’s simply political hemlock:
Reload And Do It Right. This is what John McCain wants. What I want, too. The occupation was doomed by Don Rumsfeld’s obsession with minimizing the invasion force, and by the entire administration’s cheery Neo-Con Kool-Aid drinking binge. I assumed when we started this war, and when I supported it, that we were doing Japan 1945. It honestly never occurred to me that the adminsitration would have literally no plan for occupation and that they would simply not get what to me was self-evident: that the first rule of occupations is “place boot firmly on neck.” But there is no way, not now, not with all that’s happened, that we could convince the American people to go down this path. This ship has sailed.
I have to correct Takhallus here. This ship hasn’t just sailed, my friend. It’s been hit by a sectarian hurricane and ripped apart. And now we’re finding pieces of it being washed up on shore and cursing that we didn’t see this storm coming.
Then again, maybe our radar wasn’t working properly because the Neo-Cons had put video of clear skies on a loop.
Anybody care to predict a 7-year forecast for Iraq?