Iraq

We're a couple of years removed from "Mission Accomplished!", and where do we stand in Iraq? Lets get an update, shall we?

It's a cluster-fuck, and we're paying dearly for it. Before I get started, remember that Paul Wolfowitz assured everyone that Iraqi oil revenues would pay for the "reconstruction". It's not - we're paying for it. Well, to be more accurate, your kids are going to pay for it because Bush Co. has ballooned record deficits for this war that will have to be paid for at some point.

From Knight Ridder:

Talib Abu Younes put his lips to a glass of tap water recently and watched worms swimming in the bottom.

Electricity flickers on and off for two hours in Muthana Naim's south Baghdad home then shuts off for four in boiling July heat that shoots above 120 degrees.

Fadhel Hussein boils buckets of sewage-contaminated water from the Tigris River to wash the family's clothes.

The heat in the U.S. is national news, but it's worse in Iraq - and they have no clean water or reliable electricity.

Electricity production is up to 16 hours a day in Iraqi homes according to U.S. military documents, but most Iraqis say they get eight hours of power a day on average, sometimes as many as 12. In poor areas such as New Baghdad, in the east of the capital, people go days without power, they said.

With about $2 billion already invested, Baghdad should be sparkling, said its mayor, Alaa Mahmoud al Timimi. He hasn't been consulted on American projects, besides signatures for completed developments, and has threatened to resign if he doesn't get a larger budget to solve his city's problems. The $85 million he was allocated can't keep up with the city of 6.5 million, he said.

And the right wingers will post their stories about the individual heroics of American soldiers. They wonder why those stories aren't in the main-stream media. They wonder why the MSM is always writing about the real situation. That's all fine and dandy, but completely misses that point that the heroics are going for naught. American soldiers and marines are doing all of this for a big huge screw up that's costing billions of OUR money.

But Halliburton is making out like bandits in no-bid contracts. The defense industry is flush with American tax payer cash. All because Americans are afraid of terrorists. It's a ridiculous over reaction.

But hey, if Iraq ends up with a progressive, Western style government, that will turn the tide against the jihadists right? Isn't that the whole point? Isn't Iraq supposed to be the place where we change the "hearts and minds" of the Muslim populations in the Middle East?

Well - as bad as the infrastructure problem in Iraq is, this is even worse. From the AP:

A chapter of Iraq's draft constitution obtained by The Associated Press gives Islam a major role in Iraqi civil law, raising concerns that women could lose rights in marriage, divorce and inheritance.
...
Most worrying for women's groups has been the section on civil rights in the draft constitution, which some feel would significantly roll back women's rights under a 1959 civil law enacted by a secular regime.

In the copy obtained by AP on Monday, Article 19 of the second chapter says "the followers of any religion or sect are free to choose their civil status according to their religious or sectarian beliefs."

Shiite Muslim leaders have pushed for a stronger role for Islam in civil law but women's groups argue that could base legal interpretations on stricter religious lines that are less favorable toward women.

Iraq is going to end up another militant Islamic regime. They are pushing religious craziness into the Constitution while OUR government is supervising. What do you think is going to happen the moment we leave?

I thought the whole point of this war was to secure WMD's. They don't exist. I thought it was about 9/11. Iraq had nothing to do with it. I thought it was about terrorism. It wasn't before, but it sure as hell is now.

Finally, when all the bullshit is debunked, it becomes about "freedom on the march". Who's freedom is on the march there? The bat-shit crazy Islamic theocrats are now free to screw yet another Middle Eastern nation.

Way to go George.

I feel safer. Do you feel safer?

How stupid is that anyway? What has been the cost so stupid lemming Joe American can feel safer in his boring mundane life?

How many more dumb wars to we have to start before we realize that we can't change a culture? They have to do it on their own.

I've never been one of the "bring the troops home now" types. I've always thought that if you broke it, you fix it. I thought that as screwed up the reasons for attacking Iraq were, there could be a net positive outcome if Iraq ended up with a secular government. The sad fact is that Iraq may end up more dangerous then it would have been had we left it alone.