IRAQ: Kidnappings in a Quagmire
14 November 2006 1:57 pm by Taylor Marsh
Marsh LIVE!
6-7 p.m. eastern – 3-4 p.m. pacific
***ACCORDING to CNN, most of the hostages taken today have been released.***
Dozens
kidnapped in Baghdad. What a headline.
The storyline, however, is even worse.
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about—how do you—you know, the old line
in the Watergate days was, “How do you get the toothpaste back in the
tube?” How do you repeal a war? How do you do something, once you‘ve
realized you probably made a strategic error in putting U.S. troops into Iraq,
if you decide that, how do you fix the problem? How do you get them out and
sort of fix the problem, as if it had never happened?HAASS: You can‘t. And not every problem can be fixed. And this is one
of those. And there‘s no option that‘s out there that can fix
this. So we‘re actually in that awful situation where we‘ve got
to look to cut our losses, to cut our costs, and then maybe look for some
other way to offset what we‘ve lost in Iraq. But there‘s no way
that anyone can come up with an option now that‘s going to bring about
success in Iraq. It‘s simply not on the table.
Iraq remains a challenge in need of a new policy. Getting rid of Rumsfeld is
one thing, but it doesn't get the whole job done.
And finally, Bush 41 chimes in. We waited all this time for this insider
talking point?
UPDATE (2:40 p.m.): I'm going to cover Larry Johnson's post on my show today, but Colorado Bob mentioned it in the comments so I thought I'd link it up now.
First of all, and most importantly, we are doing no good here. There is nothing we can do at this point to end the fighting. It has become systematic throughout the country. The corruption is indeed as they say in the press. It is impossible, even if America wanted to, to reconstruct anything because the men that could and should assist have been fired by those who are corrupt and in power. Additionally, those that do want to make a change are hampered by a constitution that is, at best, a joke. The Iraqi constitution is an amalgamation of old and new, federal and central. The result is an inability to get anything done at the provincial level, with regards to reconstruction, because most decisions are made by the central government. Nothing can be enforced because of federalism. Thus the mess is structural, cultural, and created by the United States.
