In my NyQuil-induced haze of Tuesday and Wednesday, I missed the post over at Powerline concerning a USA Today editorial by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Sec. Albright suffers from two things common to out-of-the-spotlight liberals: arrogance and forgetfulness. Her analysis of the situation in Iraq would be hilarious if not for the fact that she actually had the job of spearheading this nation's foreign policy.
She states that the insurgency in Iraq seems to grow stronger all the time, mainly because we do not have enough troops on the ground. I don't seem to recall her giving the same analysis to the situation in Somalia in 1993, when clearly under-resourced Americans were denied tanks and other armored vehicles because then-Secretary Warren Christopher and President Clinton did not want to heighten tensions in Mogadishu. How would that sound for a bumper sticker: "Christoper denied, Americans died." Albright must surely know something that the Pentagon and all of our intelligence agencies don't, since we've never really heard any hard numbers about the insurgency. I'm no math whiz, but if A is unknown, then isn't A+1 or A-1 still unknown?
In her brief summary of how to turn things around, Albright mentions that the US should "do what it takes to secure the cooperation of Iraq's neighbors". because "the bad guys in Iraq are truly bad and cannot be allowed to win". Well, I'm glad we at least agree on who the bad guys are. The last time I checked, none of Iraq's neighbors (except Israel) were bright lights of democracy. I could be wrong, but I doubt any of them are wild about the idea of a democratic Iraq. How could we bring them on board? Well, we could abandon Israel, turn Iraq over to whichever group has killed the most Iraqis during the insurgency, and begin gassing the Kurds in the north. Or, by golly, we could take the risk of having a free and democratic Iraq and hope that other nations in the area follow suit one day. Or maybe, just maybe, Secretary Albright doesn't really think that people with brown skin can handle democracy.
Finally, Albright mentions that the administration needs to "admit mistakes". Is this a game of table tennis or a war? Yes, mistakes have been made and anyone with a brain knows what they are. But whiny groveling to the likes of Ted Kennedy or the UN will do nothing for Iraqis; it would, however, do everything for Albright and the party she represents.
Arrogance (of the Bush Adminsitration) and Forgetfullness (of the lessons of history) are partly what led us to this mess in the first place.
Amidst the Albright-bashing, I see that you very conveniently ignored the entire first part of her statement.
"....Not everything in Iraq is bleak. The majority of the country is relatively peaceful. Millions of Iraqis are enthusiastic about finally having the right to vote. Thousands have braved threats to help organize and monitor the balloting. The elections should be honest..."
Whoops!. Aren't all the left wing liberals supposed to be the "doom and gloom" crowd? Unless you consider THAT part of her analysis of the situation in Iraq "hilarious" too. You can't have it both ways.
As far as "...Or maybe, just maybe, Secretary Albright doesn't really think that people with brown skin can handle democracy." Where the heck did you gather that from? I don't see that implied anywhere in that article.
I am sure this debate will go on ad-nauseum for years, but for the present, I grow weary of this administration and it's supporters making this topic into a simple "left wing liberal bashing" platform. I am begining to increasingly believe in the sentiment expressed in that article that "this administration will blame everyone but itself".
So OK. You say that the naysayers don't have a plan, just accusations. Well you know what? They don't have to. They are NOT in charge. The man who led them into this farking mess still is. And I haven't heard anything close to a semblence of a strategy, a direction, or a plan, from either him, or his cronies.
We do have a plan, don't we? For the sake of those dying every day in that Godforsaken land, I sure do hope so.
Hash
Posted by: Hash at January 27, 2005 04:24 PM