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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Friday, April 27, 2007

Why we fight

Take a minute (really it's worth it,) to read Josh Marshall's take on exactly what we're fighting in Iraq. We are no longer fighting Sunnis or Shia or Al Qaeda, but, in fact, a core denial.
This is the key point: right near the beginning of this nightmare it was clear the sole remaining premise for the war was false: that is, the idea that the Iraqis would freely choose a government that would align itself with the US and its goals in the region. As the occupation continued, anti-American sentiment -- both toward the occupation and America's role in the world -- has only grown.

I would submit that virtually everything we've done in Iraq since mid-late 2003 has been an effort to obscure this fact. And our policy has been one of continuing the occupation to create the illusion that this reality was not in fact reality. In short, it was a policy of denial.

It's often been noted that we've had a difficult time explaining or figuring out just who we're fighting in Iraq. Is it the Sunni irreconcilables? Or is it Iran and its Shi'a proxies? Or is it al Qaida? The confusion is not incidental but fundamental. We can't explain who we're fighting because this isn't a war, like most, where the existence of a particular enemy or specific danger dictates your need to fight. We're occupying Iraq because continuing to do so allows us to pretend that the initial plan wasn't completely misguided and a mistake.


An incisive description of why George Bush will never leave Iraq.

5 Comments:

  • Wow, that puts into words exactly what I've been thinking for a long time but couldn't express fully as well as this did.

    By Blogger Handsome B. Wonderful, at 1:02 PM  

  • Exactly. It wowed me at first, then I realized it was explaining what I already knew, but in a very incisive and brilliant way.

    It's the same thing, but it's packed very differently. I think it's the revealing of the ultimate enemy as a construction of the system.

    I've written god knows how many posts on Iraq and have never pierced this deeply.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:40 PM  

  • It's become very much a question of national (Western) self-esteem now I think. Bush plays on that.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:14 PM  

  • Good addition.

    That point is implicit in the "defeatism" charges against Democrats.

    The charge has meaning not because they're questioning the war, but because it's framed as a questioning of American supremacy.

    Good thought.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 2:18 PM  

  • If you can't win and argument, try to win a fight.

    By Blogger -epm, at 6:30 PM  

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