Thursday, March 03, 2005
Country Joe
You remember that song don't you? "And it's one two three what are fight for? Don't ask me I don't give a damn." etc. So what are we we fighting for? With the American death toll topping 1500 I still can't figure it out. And I'm not talking about the question of why we invaded; I'm talking about right now. What is the goal? As far as I can tell there are a couple of wars going on right now. There's the insurgency where the locals shoot the Americans because they are an occupying army. Then there's the civil war in which the various local constituencies are fighting over who gets to be in charge when we leave. This latter war is relatively low intensity with mutual carbombing being the preferred method of engagement. But when we leave the gloves will come off and they'll really go at it until one side or the other gets the upper hand. As far as I can tell, this much more violent civil war is going to happen no matter when we leave. The Sunnis absolutely will not accept getting shat upon by the Shiites and the Shiites aren't about to let such a small minority set the agenda for them. So we stay there taking casualties while the locals do what they can to improve their own situations with respect to the coming hot civil war.
So, is there any way we can shoot our way to situation where the Sunnis and Shiites won't be killing each other at a rapid pace once we leave? If not, what are we fighting for? We can leave now and let the real civil war start or leave in 5 years and let the real civil war start. "And it's five six seven open up the pearly gates. There ain't no time to wonder why. Whoopee we're all going to die."
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