November 21, 2004, We promised 'em elections, by God they'll GET elections
Because I find what we have wrought on the Iraqi people to be far too depressing to read about these days in English, I figured I'd introduce a new feature, linking to commentary in French, like this piece from Paris' Le Monde. What my two years of high school French allow me to glean from this piece are that: (1) we have scheduled elections in Iraq (for a national assembly, Kurdish parliament and regional provincial governments) for January 30, 2005 (apparently keeping that promise), (2) Sunnis are somewhat tense about the whole thing, given that Shiites outnumber them, and might just be looking for some payback from the ballot box, and (3) there seems to be an increase in violent activity all around Iraq, which is bad, seeing as Iraq is starting from a pretty violent baseline.
The argent line from the piece is Mais un haut gradé de l'armée américaine a nuancé ces propos, samedi, en affirmant : "Il est trop tôt pour dire que la colonne vertébrale de l'insurrection est brisée." My high school French tells me this means that some unnamed American official said that it would be kind of too early to say that the American assault on Falluja broke the back of the insurgency. (Given that I suspect that I probably have the most erudite audience in all of blogdom, if not the universe, anyone with a better translation is free to post it in comments, or otherwise, give their impressions of the Le Monde piece, or of course, to tell me to stop linking to anything the French have to say. Zut alors.)
The long and short of it seems to be that we'd best learn to like, maybe even love, the mess we've created over in Iraq. Because its ours now.
Comments
Its a pity someone didn't link to La Belle France a little earlier in the game bearing in mind they had the temerity to be right (as you'd expect from a country with a less than happy colonial record).Incidentally the BBC is doing a short series "Empire Warriors" (Thursdays 9pm BBC2)instructive viewing if you can for all insurgency watchers. Last week was the Brit experience in Aden, not a million miles from Iraq and where it all ended in tears too, this week Jewish terrorists circa 1946 (yes they started that early) for all you people who think its all Yasser's fault.
Posted by ron at November 21, 2004 5:30 PM
The Boston Globe today is running a piece that the neo-cons are now saying we've got too many troops in Iraq and that's causing the Iraqi's to be more hostile. (It's not the bombing and the killing, it's the numbers...)
Posted by Michael at November 22, 2004 9:57 AM
A sysnopsis of "The rise and fall of the great empires" by Paul Kennedy, Pages 116 and 117. England was over extended, 3000 miles away from the colonies, had to import every biscuit and bullet for the troops, and could only hold a city if it occupied that same city.
Sounds just like us in Iraq.
So now it's "Down the British, up the rebels!" and WE'RE THE BRITISH.
..
Posted by CPeterka at November 22, 2004 12:51 PM
At the risk of repeating what you already know, I say again,
He who does not know the lessons of history is doomed to make the same mistakes. However you phrase it, the truth of the observation remains.
Dr. Rice's expensive and extensive "education" obviously did not include an understanding of what she read. Also note that she voted for Jimmy Carter and sat on the fence, neither fish nor fowl, until it was clear which faction was going to have the political power in America for the remainder of her career and thus a true-blue Bush American Loyalist was born.
Posted by Sarah at November 22, 2004 6:13 PM
Well, Santayana's quote is always interesting, but it doesn't just apply to learning history: dumbasses who don't learn ANYTHING are doomed to continue to fuck things up EVERYWHERE. The American people, only 33% of whom believe that evolution is a viable, scientifically valid theory, largely ARE dumbasses (spare me, out there-- you all KNOW THIS TO BE A TRUE STATEMENT), and hence, had little problem reelecting a government they KNOW to be incompetent, and criminally and dangerously so, because, hey-- they're incompetent too, and they get to keep-- often to thrive at-- THEIR OWN jobs, right?
Dr. Rice's education wasn't so expensive, methinks. She went to the Universities of Denver (BA, Ph.D.) and Notre Dame (M.A.), fine schools to be sure, but most unlikely launching pads for an academic career at Stanford. The Ph.D. was in '81, so as of the Carter years, she'd have still been in (Gary Hart's) Denver. Something obviously went on there, to launch her from a place like the U. of Denver to... Stanford. My guess is that it's not about factions: it's about crime families. Specifically, the Bush family, and my particular guess given the geography is that the introducing Bush, who was "the guy" back in '81 (but for that Silverado thing, he'd be President now... I'm NOT KIDDING), was friend of the Hinckleys Neil Bush. (Neil was also in Denver in the early 80's).
It's... a small world... after all...
Recall that Chevron oil tanker named after Condi... it's a small world... after all...
Posted by the talking dog at November 22, 2004 9:14 PM
I have been think about stupid people recently and I think I see where part of the problem comes from. It really is a failure to understand nuance and apply critical thinking. Look at evolution. It's still a theory because it hasn't been proved true in all cases. Stupid people look at that and say "as long as it isn't true I can believe what I want". Understanding nuance would tell them how often evolution is true or false. Critical thinking would show the lack of evidence for anything else.
When presented with two conflicting bits of information, stupid people make snap judgements based of their feelings. I've heard stupid people say "I don't want to know the truth, I know what I feel is right". If stupid people won't hear truth, you can't reason with them. They think with their emotions. You have to emote at them. The DNC should get Lifetime channel to do their ads in future. Maybe if they equate Bush with an abusive husband the nation needs to leave or prosecute, some of the stupid people will get the point. Logic is no good at all.
Posted by irisclara at November 22, 2004 10:20 PM