Lightning Joe - a piece of work
Reconcilliation Out Of Mutual Distrust?
posted Monday, 8 October 2007
"Reconciliation" in Iraq- yes indeedy, I do believe in fairy tales. I do, I do, I DO believe in fairy tales!
So what's record on that one so far? It doesn't look good, I'm afraid.
The British and the French pull out a cocktail napkin sometime toward the beginning of the last century and divvy up the burdensome middle east among the glass rings, sticking Kurds with Shiites and Sunnis with them both, and put the Persians and Afgans on the other side of the napkin. Then they stumble from the canteen arm in drunken arm and try to get the rebelling natives to sing "God Save The Queen" and "The Presidential" with them. For some reason, the rousing chorus falters amid musket volleys.
Fast forward, and Saddam actually succeeds in "uniting" the factions, with the aid of such reconciliation tools as the US government supplies to him. Unfortunate side effects, such as dead Kurdish and Shiite villages, prevent it being seen for the grand success it is.
Fast forward again, and the US decides to finish the job Saddam started. So far their success is blinding, as all sides in the ethnic strife are finally on a somewhat equal footing. Cholera stricken, targetted by "insurgents," hated and betrayed by their neighbors, with their infrastructure stripped and under the heel of the "New Israelis" (Americans), but equally repressed even so.
Bush "surges" into the fray, to MAKE them reconcile ("Put DOWN the IED and say you're sorry! Do it now!") but gets less traction than a Polar Bear on a melting ice cap.
Now, today, the installed Iraqi government, under the marked delusion that they are no longer puppets, decides to make one thing clear: they don't believe in fairy tales. For some reason they see their continuing internal struggles for ethnic power as an obstacle to just getting along with each other. Who knew?
Who knew that reconcilliation grows out of mutual respect? Who knew that that the killing has to stop before the forgiveness can start? It does seem a peculiarly brainless Bushite idea, that two people can each forgive the other's sins against them, while both hold a loaded and cocked weapon on the other.
Two people Not Americans, that is: Americans know that's a fairy tale. We'd just like for OTHER people to believe in that fairy tale.
So what's record on that one so far? It doesn't look good, I'm afraid.
The British and the French pull out a cocktail napkin sometime toward the beginning of the last century and divvy up the burdensome middle east among the glass rings, sticking Kurds with Shiites and Sunnis with them both, and put the Persians and Afgans on the other side of the napkin. Then they stumble from the canteen arm in drunken arm and try to get the rebelling natives to sing "God Save The Queen" and "The Presidential" with them. For some reason, the rousing chorus falters amid musket volleys.
Fast forward, and Saddam actually succeeds in "uniting" the factions, with the aid of such reconciliation tools as the US government supplies to him. Unfortunate side effects, such as dead Kurdish and Shiite villages, prevent it being seen for the grand success it is.
Fast forward again, and the US decides to finish the job Saddam started. So far their success is blinding, as all sides in the ethnic strife are finally on a somewhat equal footing. Cholera stricken, targetted by "insurgents," hated and betrayed by their neighbors, with their infrastructure stripped and under the heel of the "New Israelis" (Americans), but equally repressed even so.
Bush "surges" into the fray, to MAKE them reconcile ("Put DOWN the IED and say you're sorry! Do it now!") but gets less traction than a Polar Bear on a melting ice cap.
Now, today, the installed Iraqi government, under the marked delusion that they are no longer puppets, decides to make one thing clear: they don't believe in fairy tales. For some reason they see their continuing internal struggles for ethnic power as an obstacle to just getting along with each other. Who knew?
Who knew that reconcilliation grows out of mutual respect? Who knew that that the killing has to stop before the forgiveness can start? It does seem a peculiarly brainless Bushite idea, that two people can each forgive the other's sins against them, while both hold a loaded and cocked weapon on the other.
Two people Not Americans, that is: Americans know that's a fairy tale. We'd just like for OTHER people to believe in that fairy tale.
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