From the "we told you this would happen" Dept.

[sharplittleteeth]

The US-led invasion of Iraq has accelerated the spread of Osama bin Laden's anti-Americanism among once-local Islamic militant movements, increasing danger to the US, according to senior intelligence officials at the CIA and State Department.

Don't mistake this for me gloating. This is an horrific development. But one that was foreseen a long time ago.

So Iraq is now both a rallying cry for Islamic fundamentalist (despite Iraq not being an Islamic state), and a training ground for Mujahideen.

Comments

[shocko.livejournal.com]

Very depressing. The adoption of the Al-Qaeda "brand" by disparate nitwit jihadis is bad enough - Algerian Salafists, Jema'a Islamiyah, Laskar e Toiba, and so on - but now to have them interknit with nationalist insurgencies and organised crime is just hideous.

The Coalition (and those Iraqis desperate for some level of normalcy) may not be left with much choice between "how/when do we get out?" and "who do we shoot?"

The odds have to be shortening on civil war. God help them all if Kirkuk goes pear shaped, with the Kurds and the Arabs opening cans of moron tribalist whup-ass on each other.

Though the world is well rid of Saddam and his murderous scumbag regime, it still saddens me that in the face of all the alternative means of removing him (and there were a few), the US opted for unilaterist idiocy. This is the inevitable result.

Whoopee. :-(

[sharplittlteeth.livejournal.com]

it still saddens me that in the face of all the alternative means of removing him (and there were a few), the US opted for unilaterist idiocy

Out of curiosity, what were the alternatives? Sanctions seemed to be doing nothing.

[shocko.livejournal.com]

Correct. Sanctions were achieving precisely diddley-squat. So that leaves us with a multi-lateral intervention, which could have taken a number of forms (though most would have been armed, which won't sit well with the "why don't we all just get along" crowd).

And how any of these forms could have been achieved might have been through an old-fashioned process called diplomacy - with Europe, and the moderate Arab world - which the current US administration has next to no understanding of the importance of, or doesn't care. This was all actually possible - particularly if the US had stated on September the 12th, 2001:

"That's it. We're cleaning house. We enlist help in ensuring no more dictatorships - anywhere. And that includes the House of Saud. Otherwise, these mediavelist bozos want the Great Caliphate? No problem. Kncok yourself out. Then we cut them off utterly from the Western world, and throw everything into a hydrogen economy. We don't need your oil, we don't need to even be there. Enjoy your sand and camels, dickheads. By the way - Israel? No more money for you, till you fix your mess. Jews don't vote Republican anyway. No more cynical proxy tyranny, to pin down parts of the globe we're making a buck out of. And if anyone wants to help, great - we need your help." Or something like that.

This was an opportunity, and they missed it. They really could have changed the world.....

But noooooo - they had to keep playing "the Great Game" v1.2 - substituting a monolith like the USSR for something truly nebulous and indefatigable like "terrorism" - because nothing kicks an economy along like having it on a permanent war footing. Ask Hitler.

And even if one cynically believes in the efficacy of good old Kissingeresque Real Politik, a deal could have done with other permanent Security Council members for a fine old secretive imperialist carve-up of Iraq's oil reserves - but seeing as George W. was taking it in the quoit from Halliburton and has the brains of a lemur, he didn't even have the sense to try that.

Sorry - got all depressed and cynical myself, there.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Henny Penny! Henny Penny! The sky is falling!
These are just people enjoying freedom.


:|

(I couldn't find the exact quotes).