Fighting the Surge

I've been resisting blogging about the Iraq quagmire. Quite simply because an unhappy side effect of living in the States is, that Iraq haunts me. It's everywhere. I don't watch tv a lot - but I make a concerted effort to avoid it, especially at news time. I have diminished my intake of NPR - just gets too depressing in the morning and doesn't set ideal heading off to work conditions. So I try to fill my quality time at home with excellent music, quality company, and great food. But every so often, the underlying high pitch frequency on Iraq that reverberates throughout American life, breaks through and I am forced to consider it.

My initial thoughts on Iraq might come as a surprise for those of you who know me as a tree-hugging-latte-drinking-lefty. I always (even back in the day when Colin Powell was making an unconvincing case over at UN HQ) thought that invading Iraq was going to be (and has turned out to be) - a mistake of cataclysmic proportions.

However, for a while, I felt that the US should do whatever it takes to "fix" the situation in Iraq. A sort of you broke it, you fix it logic. If that means sending more troops, then send more troops.

Though I know the situations aren't comparable, but I thought that the States should mirror whatever the Allies did in WWII in Germany and Japan. Some the reasons (I think) for the successful reconstruction of those countries, had to do with the sheer volume of troops, which lead to the total defeat of other side, followed by the complete replacement and reconstruction of political institutions. (I just want to put a caveat here again, that I am by no means an expert in WWII military history or contemporary military strategy. The extent of my understanding of the rules of war - stems from reading Michael Waltzer's Just and Unjust Wars - an excellent book, btw). So yeah, my feeling was: whatever, however many troops you need - just do it! You want to invade a country? Well, jeez, at least have the decency to invade it “properly”.

So there we have it. My internal, private, view on Iraq over the past few months. However, I was finally tempted into debating Iraq with my American democrat political operative friend. I told him the same, more or less, as in the paragraph above...

And he convinced me that I was wrong. He said the US has past the threshold of being able to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, there have just been too many mistakes. The you broke it, you fix it rule only applies when you can superglue parts of the broken teacup back together... but when you throw the teacup on the ground, step on it, grind your heel into it, and mix in pieces of earth, then no amount of picking up the pieces and glue will put it back together.

Unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to discuss alternatives (the bill came just as I was ready to admit the faults of my argument). So I was left with the nagging, hauting question: If the US is no longer a viable, reputable broker for peace in Iraq, then what is the solution?

Hmmmm….maybe, just maybe, the international community won't stand for what is going on in Iraq any longer…

....Maybe the global conscience will intervene and the paradigm will shift.... from watching the American Empire hang itself (pardon the pun) on it's own rope of mistakes - to declaring that the situation in Iraq is unconscionable and has larger implications for the region and for global stability...

...and that perhaps the time has come to swallow our distain, to role up our honest broker peacemaker sleeves, start sifting through the rubble and slowly, steadily, try to put the teacup back together...

UPDATE: Check out a Rebuttal to this post on Canada's Debate...