Saturday, May 01, 2004
A fox in charge of a hen-house, Pt II
After letting the Middle Eastern insider, Lakhdar Brahimi, to take charge of the political transition in Iraq, the Americans are now putting one of Saddam's generals in charge of pacifying Fallujah - although this is more like putting a fox in charge of a fox-house.
Strategic genius or a sign of desperation? It's got me worried. One thing that the US cannot afford is the loss of nerve. There can be no peace with forces within Iraq which want the whole democratic project to fail - after all, what is a compromise between freedom and dictatorship?
Meanwhilee, "[t]he world was horrified yesterday and denounced the abuse of Iraqi detainees by US forces as the Arab world reacted angrily to photographs of mistreatment from inside an Iraqi prison." But not as angrily as to photographs of four American contractors beaten to death and set on fire?
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Strategic genius or a sign of desperation? It's got me worried. One thing that the US cannot afford is the loss of nerve. There can be no peace with forces within Iraq which want the whole democratic project to fail - after all, what is a compromise between freedom and dictatorship?
Meanwhilee, "[t]he world was horrified yesterday and denounced the abuse of Iraqi detainees by US forces as the Arab world reacted angrily to photographs of mistreatment from inside an Iraqi prison." But not as angrily as to photographs of four American contractors beaten to death and set on fire?
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