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Scott Bates column in today’s Courant

Our own Scott Bates (State Committee person from our district) has a column in the Courant this morning about his experiences in Iraq, where he is, according to the Courant, “working with officials to strengthen democratic institutions”. I’m not sure exactly what that means, though I know Scott has been spending a lot of time there and working really hard. Sounds like Scott is not terribly optimistic:

Last week marked the Iraqi government’s takeover of security in its cities from the American military. The thinking is for U.S. forces to assume a lower profile and put the Iraqi government out front and center. In this region, the more visible the American military presence, the more we are identified as occupiers, which strengthens the hands of the extremists. And so we are at the point where the Iraqi government will need to sink or swim on its own. There is not much more we can do. And perhaps the idea of trying to control events in this part of the world is an illusion after all.

Here at home we are working hard to pretend that Iraq and Afghanistan don’t exist, but that’s a losing strategy. We will be dealing with both, in one way or another, for years to come. Scott puts the blame where it belongs, on the folks who got us into this mess with no clear plan on how to get us out, or even what to do assuming they intended to stay put (which they did).


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