OK, THIS LOOKS BAD

Yes, in Iraq right now it looks like every ideal we
may have had is rapidly disappearing in a sandstorm of
political and religious power struggles. In other
words, exactly what I predicted would happen. I’ve
warned over and over that democracy in Iraq would very
likely produce a fundamentalist Muslim government, if
not one actively hostile to the U.S.

And what then?

I also predicted back in 1991 -- yes, really -- that
an occupation would produce a violent armed power
struggle among various political factions jockeying
for power. I based this staggering insight on my
guess that that’s what would happen here if another
country invaded the U.S.

Anyway, both things are happening right now. And it
was only this January, with all the purple fingers,
that things looked so good.

At the State of the Union address, Bush managed a
totally staged “improvised” moment with an Iraqi woman
named Safia Taleb al-Souhail and an American woman
whose son, ironically, was killed in Iraq. All of
America wept as they embraced.

The Washington Post captured it the next day:

“When Norwood started to pull back, the
chain from her son's dog tags, which she
had been holding, became entangled in
al-Souhail's accoutrements. The women had
to disentangle themselves on live television,
the awkwardness lending the moment an
unrehearsed charm. It was, by any measure, magic.”

-- The Washington Post, “The Moment That
America Embraced”, February 4, 2005

Out of the tens of millions of people in Iraq, Bush
had Safia Taleb al-Souhail sit next to Laura Bush to
show how happy Iraqis were that we invaded.
(Admittedly a great improvement over the 2004 guest
Laura had, that crook, Ahmed Chalabi).

And how does Safia Taleb al-Souhail feel now?

"When we came back from exile, we thought
we were going to improve rights and the position
of women. But look what has happened -- we
have LOST all the gains we made over the last
30 years. It's a BIG DISAPPOINTMENT."

--- Safia Taleb al-Souhail, Iraq's ambassador
to Egypt, Reuters interview, August 24, 2005


Oh well. Win some, lose some…

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