Question of the Day

From his confab on the Iraq War at Camp Branch Davidian (which is where the below picture was snapped), President Bush issued this statement today:

I keep reminding the American people that the stakes are worth it. It is worth it to help Iraq succeed. It is worth it to have a democracy in the Middle East. It is worth it to show other reformers and people who want to live in a free society what is possible.

So, the question of the day is, what do you think of that assertion? Do you believe it’s even possible for any success to emerge from the war, that we’ll ever see a genuine Iraqi democracy? If something good does, miraculously, manage to eke its way out of all this, will it have been worth it? Basically, I’m just soliciting Shakers’ current thoughts on the war.

I never supported the war; I vainly hoped when it was launched that at least some humanitarian success could come out of it; I don’t believe we will see, anytime in the near future, anything that could be categorized as a “success,” but, at the same time, I don’t want Iraq to be a total failure for the sake of its people. And yet, I’m not sure that anything but a total failure is possible, unless we leave, and even then, who knows what will happen. I find myself in a constant state of flux, ranging from hopeless to slightly less hopeless. And sometimes incredibly angry. What is Bush talking about when he suggests we’re showing “other reformers and people who want to live in a free society what is possible”? Do Middle Eastern reformers really need an example? Isn’t that just dreadfully fucking arrogant? Even if they did need an example, how is our endeavor in Iraq providing one? The whole thing makes my brain spin, and as soon as he starts talking about it in his ghastly spinspeak, it makes my brain want to explode.

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