Scorecard

So, the GOP would have us believe that Iraq was a huge success. Let's have a look at what is and what isn't.

1. Iraq is now a Democracy, of sorts. I mean, they're going through the motions, but it's definitely scarier than it was. I mean before, you knew what would get you killed. Now you could get killed for simply standing two feet to the left of a light post. So, that's not super awesome.

2. Some people are happier. Kurds are definitely psyched. They've always wanted to be independent, so that's a good thing for them. Sunni's and Shi'ites. Well, they're not so totally psyched.

3. Some people are really unhappy. As I said before, if you're living in the Sunni triangle, you could say that you're in a world of shit. Not only there, but generally speaking, the Sunnis are now getting abused by the Shi'ites. So that sucks for them. And it's really just a role reversal of sorts, before it was Sunnis abusing everyone. Now it's Shi'ites abusing Sunnis.

4. We've spent a pretty penny liberating a country only to see it descend into the 3rd level of hell. I'm not saying it's a lost cause, but it could definitely use a little more of the good old college try. I could Monday morning quarterback what's happening, but the fact is that the fog of war makes it really pointless.

5. We haven't found any WMDs. I know certain fabricators in the GOP like to pretend we have, but they're full of it. Think about it, if they had found anything at all that even remotely looked like a WMD, they would have put it front and center. The reason for war was this. Without it, there was no reason for the war.

6. The reason for war was not to liberate Iraq. I know that this may sound surprising, but go back and look at the historical record. Liberating Iraq was not the justification. End of story. You can't change your reasons for going to war. If you do, it's called lying. That's why I call the GOPs liars (well, and for other reasons too, but this is one reason why I call Bush a liar). To be clear, it isn't because they said that there were WMDs and there weren't. That was just stupidity, arrogence and being bloodthirsty. Those are flaws too. But they're fucking liars because they're acting like their original reasons were different, now that they've seen that they were totally and completely wrong.

7. Most of the fighters in Iraq are foreign. Is this good news? I don't know. What's pretty clear to me is that if this is good news, things in Iraq are shitty. If this is bad news, well, it's really bad news.

8. Et Cetera.

The list goes on. The problem with all of this is that it's wrapped in politics. See, typically, when you have a problem, you:

1. Acknowledge that there is a problem.
2. Identify what the problems are clearly.
3. Propose solutions.
4. Evaluate those proposed solutions.
5. Select a solution.
6. Implement solution.
7. Repeat steps 1 -7.

What you don't do is insert the steps that we've got now which are:

0.5 Deny that there's a problem and accuse those who say there's a problem of being traitors.
0.6 Throw stones at each other until the onlooking audience (i.e. your constituents) become so disgusted with you that you must advance to step 1 or risk civil war.

Clearly shit in Iraq has not gone off without a hitch. Clearly this hasn't gone to plan. Clearly there needs to be some changes in our strategy to how we deal with it. Instead of just bickering about it, wouldn't it be beneficial if everyone took a deep breath and tried to do steps 1 - 7 as best as possible. See, I've found, when you actually try and include people in problem solving that even if they don't get their way, they can often be much much more compliant than if you didn't.

I'm sick of the GOP "my way or the highway, you traitor" attitude. It violates the principles of democracy. It's assinine. And it kills people and wastes money.