As Iraq Unravels, US Repeats Mistakes

[Scootaloo]

9. Wow. So many trite, meaningless nothings, capped with dismissive racism

Did you remember to put your pith helmet and monocle on before typing this, colonel?

these people have been doing this for a thousand years; hell, 4000 years.

"These people"? not a one of them has been alive more than a century at best. They are not living one thousand years ago, much less four thousand years ago, they are living right now and they are dealing with a situation that is the culmination of roundabout thirty-odd years of policy, both Iraqi and American.

The article explains how this triad of divisions - Shia / Sunni / Kurd - are artificial. Of course these groups DO exist, but US policy has been to treat the three as separate and mutually antagonistic, rather than trying to encourage the notion of "Iraq." it's a subtle but intentional sabotague. , fostering these divisions on the ground, while tongue-clucking about how "it's awful, but what can you do?" to the home viewers.

The whole concept of Arab Democracy doesn't pass the laugh test.

it seems to do alright until western powers interfere, like in Egypt. Dictators are simply so much more willing to give us "our" oil or cheap, so long as we arm them. Ask the Saudis. or the Emirs around the gulf. Or Saddam. The US - and other powers, of course - eager;y interfere to prevent Democracy, because democracy is inconveniant. Shit, we're watching our own leders try to hack it apart here i nthe "western world" and you think they're going to encourage it somewhere else?

But of course, it's the fact that they're Arabs that draws your focus and scorn. Not actual history, not the realities of international politics, but the fact that they're a different ethnicity from yourself.