Overheard in passing
The western Left didn’t give a tinker’s damn for the fates of the Iranians, Lebonese, Nicaraguans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Koreans, Cubans, Czechs, Hungarians, Poles, or even Russians, so long as the eeeevil American right-wingers were dealt a political defeat (and let’s not even start on Israelis).
Why should anybody be surprised thay they could now care less about Iraqis?
Vodkapundit
Posted on October 10th, 2005 by pwyll
Filed under: General, politics, war
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On a number of levels, Saturday could be the big day on all this.
There’s an argument to made that, with the upcoming vote on a “Constitution”, the result could be either a civil war that effectively puts an end to this artificial “nation” on current maps called Iraq, or a path found to making Iraq a real nation-state.
To paraphrase a Bette Davis line, ‘It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.’
Saturday has come and gone, and it seems civil war is just the fading hope of Islamofacists and the western press.
One expert’s comment, published Sunday, for a Washington Post analysis piece on the “apparent approval of Iraq’s constitution” by Iraqi voters on Saturday:
“‘This thing is an enormous fiasco,’ said Juan Cole, a University of Michigan historian and a specialist on Shiite Islam. He said having such a solid bloc in opposition to the constitution ‘really undermines its legitimacy, and this result guarantees the guerrilla war will go on. …. Cole said the Bush administration increasingly has little influence over the political turmoil in Iraq. ‘The whole thing is out of their hands,’ he said. ‘The Bush administration is pretty helpless in Iraq.’”
If the the Bush Administration’s intent was to replace a genocidal dictator with a democratically-induced civil war, then Mission Accomplished.
Paco Malo
My html and xhtml fail me — the “solid bloc” of voters opposing the new Iraqi constitution is a Sunni Islam bloc.
Juan Cole said that?!? Damn, next thing you know Noam Chomsky will come out against the US side in this war. Cubans have a saying that will perhaps convey my esteem for Professor Cole’s opinion. Cambiado por mierda, se pierde la envoltura. Roughly, but idiomatically, were I to receive his opinion in exchange for a box of shit, I would be out one box.
Carnal Reason Comment 1 17Oct2005
¡Oye, hombré!
I thought we were supposed to keep this “family friendly”.
To use an idiom of U. S. English — as necessary,
the gloves are off!
Paco Malo
You are right, of course. I thought you might appreciate the colorful expression, but evidently not. Let’s not walk further down that road. I’ll clean up my act. Allow me to make a more reasoned reply to your comment.
The middle east has always been a war zone. I don’t expect a pax Americana overnight. But I think it it misleading to characterize the situation in Iraq as civil war. The so-called insurgency is financed and led by non-Iraqis.
The Saudis have been financing the demonization of the west for a very long time, in order to export their own civil war. The Iranians have played much the same game. If there is to be war, better it is in Iraq (and Syria and Iran) than in the US.
We are in it, and there is no way out but forward.
First, my friend, I did appreciate your idiom. I love idioms. Further, I use them to teach American English as a Second Language. Idioms are the spices that make languages palatable.
Second, your sanitized second draft ignores the point of my original comment, that being the boundless irony of the current state of affairs juxtaposed with Dubya’s now 3 year old Mission Accomplished photo op.