Friday, July 16, 2004

On the re-Iraqification of Iraq

Okay, so it looks like all of our progress in Iraq (which is debatable anyway, but for the sake of argument, we're gonna go with it) has come to a screeching halt and slammed into reverse as Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, according to witnesses, pulls out a gun and goes all Saddam on six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Granted, right now we're just working with allegations. So far, the story has only been picked up by the Australian media, and there are holes to be filled in - we don't know the names of the two people who witnessed the act, and Allawi claims that he's never been to the prison and doesn't carry a gun. But if there's any kernel of truth to this it all, it means bad, bad things for the American war effort.

Let's look at the scorecard, shall we? Executions... check. Torture... check. Rape rooms - does it still count if the victims are little boys instead of women? Yeah? Then check.

If substantiated, this means that we've been in Iraq for over a year to accomplish pretty much jack. It means that we've come in promising to save the Iraqi people and bring them the joys of freedom and democracy, and then we've given them more of same, but this time with their houses blown up and their families maimed. It means that over 1,000 coalition troops, nearly 900 of them American, have lost their lives so that we could leave Iraq just about as bad as it was before we got there.

Bad, bad things.

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