Strategy? What strategy?
Post-invasion iraq - - Posted on July, 3 at 5:20 pm by Ken L
The US Government Accountability Office released a report last week about ‘Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq’.
Some of the findings really leave me scratching my head. For example:
Between 2005 and 2007, Iraq spent only 24 percent of the $27 billion it budgeted for its own reconstruction efforts. More specifically, Iraq’s central ministries, responsible for security and essential services, spent only 11 percent of their capital investment budgets in 2007–down from similarly low rates of 14 and 13 percent in the 2 prior years.
This implies levels of administrative incompetence that exceed even those of the Iemma Government. Other findings were expected: violence is down but little political progress has been made and ‘the security environment remains volatile and dangerous’.
The summary concludes:
We reaffirm the need for an updated strategy given the important changes that have occurred in Iraq since January 2007. An updated strategy should build on recent gains, address unmet goals and objectives and articulate the U.S. strategy beyond July 2008.
I thought this was a bit unkind. After all they’ve come this far without a strategy - why change a winning formula?
All this will be dismissed of course by the occupation cheer squad, who will continue to to whoop and holler about the decline in violence and call it ‘victory’, oblivious to the inanity of their position. It’s tempting to ask who they think they have beaten - the Baathists? the terrorists? the Iranian puppet militias? ALL OF THEM BABY WE BEAT ALL THE MUTHAFUCKAS YEEHAA!!! - but I’ve long since abandoned hope of having any kind of coherent conversation with them.
The whole exercise has been an illuminating revelation of the extent of delusional irrationality to which reasonably intelligent people can go to avoid having to admit they made a gross error of judgement in supporting an act that caused immeasurable human suffering.
Stand by for a repeat performance on a much grander scale with respect to global warming.
Posted in Post-invasion iraq |
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Iraq was much more secure and stabilised under the tyrant madman Saddam Hussein. Then, only a few thousand vanished into the dust, oil generated income for them, the economy thrived before the west’s sanctions, and they enjoyed a trace of human rights.
Unlike today where, under their liberators’ video cameras, they hang from electrified cords in Abu Ghraib while dogs and females snarl at their dangling organs.
And where there are perhaps three million dead, millions more exiled, untold peoples who simply stopped existing. And their oil has vamoosed.
But the good news is that US ’strategy’ brought them democracy and shoved it down their throats even when they didn’t ask for it, they now have the world’s mighiest CIA spook headquarters on their doorstep, and are under the control of a mad man exponentially and infinitely more dangerous than dear old Uncle Saddam, who by comparison, now appears almost saintly.
Perhaps the Catholic Church might beatify Saddam’s posthumous arse at Randwick. A bit of a laugh for us all as we can’t even wear a t-shirt to protest at the old faggot in a dress who should be pontificated out of a cannon.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Are they still bringing that corpse to WYD ? {Man that’s sick, well less than the..}
Would a “Grateful Dead” T shirt be ok?’
Seems to be an opportunity to discuss the WYD and draconian laws and the tax payer funding for one avenue of devil dodgers, has not been broached here, been some lively talk elsewhere. (Or I’ve missed it :{,here ).Still, it’s a bit topical eh.
Perhaps I could offer again a bottle of fine home brew for the most poignant/polemic/gracious title?.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:23 pm
He’s here Lang but the killjoy quarantine officials made them seal the coffin so we can’t get to look at his miraculously beautiful corpse. Still the important thing is to Feel the Presence.
There were a lot of other blog posts about the absurd police powers so I didn’t see any point being an echo chamber.
July 4th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Hey! What if I deliberately went to WYD out of anthropological curiosity, and was annoyed to see 21st century educated people woshipping a human corpse?
Could I have a volunteer fireman arrest the pope?
July 4th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Wonder if they bunged on the show during winter so the poor bastard didn’t get fly blown.Or maybe that’s why it’s sealed up.
Sean, the more I think about it the more weird it is,fruit loop stuff.
July 4th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Argus Tuft said;
Tell me with a straight face that you didn’t just pull a number out of your arse and triple it.
July 4th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Good point Peter. The occupying powers never accepted responsibility for counting civilian deaths and injuries, leaving smartarses like you free to sneer at any figure produced by anyone on the grounds that it is based on dodgy estimates.
Ignoring civilian casualties on the grounds that they were none of its business was one of the few strokes of brilliance on the part of the CoW.
July 5th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Ken - you and I both know that Mr. Tuft pulled the figure out of his arse because he desperately needs to put the ‘COW’ in the worst possible light. His figure is at least 6 times the discredited lancet figure and 30 - 50 times more accepted figures. He also fails to point out that the vast majority were killed by their follow citizens or were ‘freedom fighters’ (aka idiots).
He also says “Then, only a few thousand vanished into the dust” completely forgetting Anfal where somewhere between 20,000 - 100,000 were massacred by SH.
It is Mr. Tuft being the smartarse, not me.
July 5th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I don’t know anything of the sort Peter and adopting your usual supercilious patronising tone to belittle others without making any constructive contribution to the issue under discussion is precisely what I regard as smartarsery.
As is the practice of occupation supporters of taking gleeful advantage of an absence of data for which the occupying powers are wholly responsible, for reasons I outlined in my earlier comment.
Do you have any comment about the matters raised by the post?
July 5th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Ken - if the cow did publish numbers no one with an ax to grind would believe them anyway.
July 5th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Even if I’m wrong by a million and only two million Iraqis are dead from total US interference - or even only ONE million, it speaks volumes about any writer’s morals or rather the lack thereof to even consider questioning the matter.
It’s like saying that Hitler wasn’t so bad: he only gassed five million Jews; not six million.
I hardly perceive myself as owning a doctorate of smartarsery for illuminating a massive wrong in this shitty world which was based on nothing but failed American foreign policy that perhaps is unprecedented in history.
Anyone wondering if Iraqis have died since the US illegally invaded their country for NO REASON WHATSOEVER should simply type “Iraqi deaths” or similar into Google search and let them be the judge.
My kind thanks to Ken for supporting me here.