CT Blue

A few thoughts jotted down while I don’t watch Bush’s speech.

There’s been some talk, as I mentioned recently, to the effect that whoever gets elected in 2008 will soon own the war that Bush will bequeaths to him or her. At this point, as anyone case see, his entire strategy is to repeat his life story-leave a mess behind and let someone else clean it up.

It’s an unfortunate thing that so few of the Democratic candidates are willing to do what needs to be done if and when they get elected: Get out of Iraq completely. Bill Richardson says that he will, and I assume Dennis Kucinich feels the same way, but the front tier candidates get vague when they talk about their plans for the future. Each of them plans to maintain an imperial presence.

There’s no doubt that as we depart, either from a combat role or completely, there will be massive bloodshed. That’s happening now and it may very well increase for a while. That’s a result that was fated from the moment we went in. That blood is on Bush’s hands, not that he cares.

If we stay, in any role, we will be a permanent irritant. We have had, and will have, no success in being a force for good in the Muslim world. There was, in fact, a time when we had a good reputation among Muslims-back in the palmy days of Roosevelt when we were viewed as anti-colonialists.

We don’t understand the Muslim world, and never will. If we step aside they will not have us to kick around, so will, no doubt, start kicking each other, which appears to be something they enjoy doing. If we stay, we will hasten our own demise as a great nation. We have already entered that period in an Empire’s history where the cost of Empire exceeds the gains. This is amplified in our system where the fruits of empire go not to the nation, but to corporations- mostly oil companies. (Okay, in fact the fruits of empire always go to ruling elites)

It’s time for us to recognize that we harm ourselves as much as our still undefined “enemies” by wasting our blood and treasure on maintaining our presence in a part of the world where we can do no good. We could, on the other hand, help ourselves tremendously in the Muslim world by announcing that we will stand down from interfering in their countries. If the people of Iran, for instance, were secure in the knowledge that we did not intend to attack them, the chances would increase tremendously that the present government would be replaced by one more rational. Ahmadinejad is almost as unpopular as Bush; he stays in power by playing the same fear card that works for George.

Back to where I started, most of the Democrats feel the need to prove their manhood (be the candidate male or female) by proposing that we maintain a presence in Iraq. Any other course, apparently, would be a sign that they are not serious people. Staying will be a disastrous mistake, and if the next president makes that mistake, he or she truly will own Iraq policy. Our only hope, oddly enough, is that we’ll end up leaving as we did in Vietnam, with the last guy hanging off a helicopter.