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David Kurtz - Go to your room!
David go to your room, read Juan Cole every day, and write 1,000 times, "I will not be snookered."
Real Change
04.10.08 -- 1:05PM
By David Kurtz
Charlie Rose kept me up late last night against my will, but his interview of the NYT's
John Burns and Dexter Filkins about Iraq was fascinating, largely
because it shed new light, for me at least, on how much things have
actually improved on the ground there.
Whether the reduction in violence changes the strategic equation remains to be seen -- and Burns and Filkins agree that the odds remain long. But coming from two men who were in Iraq during the worst of times, their astonishment at the turnaround there within a relatively short time is notable:
I certainly knew violence was down. But since the pronouncements of
improvement in Iraq have come from such an unreliable messenger, the
Bush Administration, they have been easy to discount. Perhaps too easy.
Comments (1)
I predicted a falloff in violence as neighborhoods segregated. Others have of course said the same.
That there is less small-scale violence, of the sectarian type, is not much cause for hope, since it is a long way from there to seeing the independent Shia, like Moqtada, reconcile with the installed Shia, like Maliki. And the Sunni will go their own way when we stop buying them off.
I expect, however that there will always be reasons to not simply walk away from Iraq. With such an excruciatingly embarrassing beginning (no WMD), middle (ruined infrastructure, many more dead people), and no-end-in-sight continuation of the middle, we can't leave until we find a formula to save our reputation.
I knew this would happen, that Iraq would saddle even a new Democratic president with a hopeless shitpile, and it was among the reasons I argued vehemently against going in.
Jail is too good.
April 11, 2008 9:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
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