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A country only has existence in the mind. So it cannot be lost or found. Nationhood is a kind of jedi mind trick. Which is why they use a ruler to draw the borders [because it doesn't really matter].

We cannot lose a country [how can you lose an idea?] but we can lose our humanity. Iraq is called 'the cradle of civilisation' and what is civilisation but the expression of humanity? As long as we have humanity we have 'a country' [and a civilisation]. And no one can take the garden of our humanity away. :)

It is no surprise that America is viewed as the fire-festering, black-winged Balrog of our age. There is one thing I will credit to America for: They can never understand, no matter how they try, the thinking of an Arab. They can never relate to problems which grip us from tradition, culture, religion and finally humanity. They can never understand that they are, and will forever be, a foreign military presence which is not welcomed by the majority. Ignorance has perhaps lightened the burden of the blame.
However, one cannot help by feel this sinister aura when it's presence is a reality. Where ever the U.S. has attempted to fix a problem outside of it's own borders, it has served no one else but itself. It is a shame the Arabs cannot band together and think along the same lines.

If a Sunni is green, a Shia is blue, a Kurd is red, a Christian is yellow, a Wahabi magenta, Durzi cyan, a Jew orange; surely unity will emit a beam of white light which can shine an solve our problems!

Dicky,

I'm not quite sure of what to make of your post.

A country as defined by its people, geographical location / boundaries, its politico-legal and social tendancies - is *to an extent* a collection of ideas shared by the collective citizenry.

But it goes further than ideas and emotions. The country is your history, your property - your home, your liveihood, the place where you can find all your firends and family, the place where you have the legally guaranteed right of belonging, the right to strive and succeed.

This is more than just ideas. This is ideas with backing, with form and shape. Ideas that - unfortunately - don't travel when you have to flee as a regugee or assylum seeker.

The US and current Iraqi Government have mismanaged the crisis to the point where all that the country was to the Iraqi people is now in danger of being utterly corrupted, wholly destroyed or simply taken away.

You can argue that this is simply denying the Iraqi people the right to enjoying their *ideas*, but it goes further. These rights are actively being denied to an entire nation - in their own homeland.

No wonder the Iraqis feel lost, when they can no longer recognise that *idea* that they have grown up with, that they have come to expect and should be entitled to enjoy.

Yes, you can feel you have lost the idea you once lived in. Ask any refugee or assylum seeker forced out of their own *ideas*. They may still retain their memories, but they are poor substitutes to the house you built and lived in all your life.

And your notion that 'simply maintaining your humanity will give you a country to live in' is both patronising and untrue. Ask the Iraqi who has lost his home and job, who doesn't know where his family will be able to settle; where he doesn't even know if that *idea* he thought he was living in will be around for much longer or be sold off into job lots along sectarian lines.

Our Iraqi friend still has his humanity, but that doesn't help if he's squashed into a refugee tent in Saudi and has no way of knowing if he'll ever return. Loving humankind and being able to empathise with your fellow humans is great but it doesn't make a nation... nor does it return to where you came from.

riq

if you have locked in your identity to that of an idea of nation state and that state is taken away then yes you can feel lost if that is the only idea of identity one has. So the question is that really your identity as a human being?

how old are the current borders of iraq? What happened before that? Borders move all the time so to 'lock yourself into' some temporary historical idea means a lot of suffering?

coming from a refugee background myself when everything is taken away you realise the only thing you do have is your humanity.

the great temptation is to fall into an easy victimhood. Lots do but it doesn't have to be that way?

"to hailing the partition of Iraq as the answer to our troubles only to hit a wall in the shape of Iran this time. The thought of Iran using an Iraqi Shiite state to expand its power in the region got the world so frightened we Iraqis had to go full throttle backwards and work on ways to live harmoniously together again"
I think Salam Pax will wait a surprise. Iran will be dealt with soon. The Bush governement did not show it learned the lessons from Iraq lately... The Russian atomic scientist did leave Iran last days.. so Israel is free to make its strike on Iran and start a new US led "democracy-forced" experiment.....

Presence of mind situations can be won or lost with some "magics"..this has often been studied...

Economic dispossession and dimnification is enforced deliberately by teachers managers rapists police psychiatrists priests eminent feminists politicians and doctors... they practice techniques deliberately and trial them on the public for money...

Our magic out numbers and overpowers them and overplays them with loyal masses thrown around them and the dangers of commotion and the importance of survival and control over it....and then punishes them for daring into physical self defense...

But once they have tried to change the elegance of your own body into belief in their needs..the meanings inflicted into the situation can be used to trigger responsiveness again and again ... deliberately

Behavioural dysynchronisation can result and the several genders of your body can become inconveniently characterised by opponents risks and enemies...

The gen-i-us of our bio preparation can be advanced with empathies and sympathies and the responsiveness of our care systems...your natural sanities can become insane and more vulnerable ..due to extremes...and the need for new or old care systems genius...

Often there is no experience for even those usual occurrences...

So systems can be abused and many people are self trained to enhance or abuse and mislead other people but often less than themselves...usually for athletic, Jesus miracle testing, or relationship preparation reasons..

Some people can perhaps be detonated to explode...

And commissariat systems seem to have influenced drug degraded humanity into many kinds of leadership..whether "you classes" or "me people"

That has obviously been tested both in Iraq and in Vietnam where psyche did not always give good head! and via blairism and conservatism...

The quickest way to avoid disinsanification seems to be to avoid beliefs meanings behaviours obediences dependencies eternities drugs violence or criminalities why questions blames or complaints...to disengram the body...

And reboot biosystems with prepared studied bio health examples that restore sanities...eg the expressions of healthy women evocative of younger days in your life..

The practicalities of action can reawaken in many grammars of memory and scenes can be acted through with appropriate grammatical views to recover aptitudes astutely as you had them...

We create animal magnetism and this can be moderated to degrade sanity with systems interfering at inappropriate composure representations...

Used well the presence of mind of others can be epistemologised and changed ...your biosystem can completely recovers the shapes of youth and all genders can be reexpressed for perfect restoration of sanity and freedom from others...

PS it seems to have been best to avoid relativism and internalisms...with reputation and forward thinking opportunist confrontation and outcomes focus...and avoid everybody everyone everything with attention to anybody..otherwise you end up becoming very lower middle class! Practicality beats theory and any shrink will make things worse for the money...to the detriment of your health and accountabilities..

BCD TLC

After spending many moons in Arab regions, I think I understand, but only understand that which I can experience,In my short lifetime. This is exactly the same as the coalition, they are living the learning curve, no one could have expected it, esspecially the Yanks. Why was it no one thought to express to the Americans thier intentions? Do you think those religious and political leaders Saddam didnt murder, who took refuge in Iran stopped their war with him ? No.. Did anyone expect the Sunni to harbour Al Queda and foriegn insurgents? Nope.. to their own destruction as we see today.. If its been a plan by Iran maybe, obviously it was a very good one, coz the Yanks had no idea. The Iraqi need to sort their yard out, they are not Muslim, Muslims, true Muslims dont kill each other. All non believers, Highjacking the religion. Its a shame, but they might just get what they want soon, a full pull out, then slughter each other.. or, we stay, which is going to happen, just look at the new US Embassy in Baghdad. Salaaam to you all..

this is to comment on post #2....

"Where ever the U.S. has attempted to fix a problem outside of it's own borders, it has served no one else but itself."

If you study world history, and not just propoganda to self-grandize one's own countries non-achievments, The U.S. stands leaps and bounds over any other country in the modern era in innovation, philanthropy, and the general quest for human knowledge. the statement above is just wrong, granted there are certain political agencies that have a U. S. first policy, but to say that as a blank statement is not right. Who came to the whole worlds aid to stomp out facism, nazism, and global communism? what did your country do? invent the light bulb...oops sorry that was the U.S. along with the internet, modern computers, the transistor and just about everything that matters to a modern human to make our lives easier. Sure the U.S. isn't perfect because it's run by people and by default people are not perfect, but to say we serve no one but ourselves is ludicrous.

liked your balrog comment.....

I feel slightly uncomfortable that you fail to mention that Iraq is in this state to a large extent because of those killing other Iraqis. It's all very convenient to keep blaming US and UK policy and echoing other peoples agendas by portraying this government as a puppet, when clearly it was voted by more then 8million of Iraq's 26million (even if its not up to the job) Yes there are corrupt people in government, but how can you expect a government to function when you have lunatics out there killing any civilian they see, how can you control a suicide bomber???. You are very quick to highlight Iran and never mention a word edge-wise about fellow Arab countries who are facilitating the Territories (yes that鈥檚 right terrorist, and not resistant fighters) If Iran is intervening which no one doubts its doing it by facilitating resistant fighters to help fight against the US army (as so blatantly being admitted by the US Army in Iraq) unlike fellow So called brotherly Arab states who won't allow any form of representation that doesn鈥檛 abide by their draconian teaching (even if it meant killing over 1000's of Iraqi's every month) is that what Iran is doing??? Yet your memory is glued on death squads who are assassinating on an impulse that humans called REACTION (reaction to many years of submission and thousands killed before/during/after the war) although that鈥檚 no way to uphold justice it鈥檚 just the way it is when you have such level of poverty. Lets not portray one side of a story that is Iraq. Its so hard to be non biased in Iraq, therefore I read your blog with utmost hesitation and caution.

Reply to Jon,'If you study world history"I cannot believe that you actually think that the USA stands leaps & bounds over any other country in the world.What planet have you been living on?I can name many many innovations,quest for human knowledge etc,to name a few.Cloning,"Dolly" the sheep,Pennicillen,Innsullin,discovery & utillisation of DNA,first man in space & orbit the world,Curie discovering radium,etc etc the list goes on & on.All of these dicoveries outside of the USA.You claim that you stamped out Facism,Nazism,Communism,Bull****.You guys came into the first & second world war 2yrs after the Brits were fighting,also you did not defeat Communism.That all started with Gorbechev.Oops sorry your right Edison did invent the light bulb after he stole the idea from someone elses innitial experiments.

i just think its really sad for the iraqi people. We are all human and no matter where we live we deserve secruity. i feel that the british and americans cant leave and the un and arab countries should pull together and help iraq in way of troops.. no matter our cultural differences or religion things should be simple. this would be a solution i feel

Jon #8

Sorry mate, but I think you'll find alot of the modern worlds development within the history of Britain, but then again, to you, history is only a few centuries old.

response to post #10 and #12

I'm fully aware of the british role in modern innovation but I'm refering to the everday use of technology that EVERYONE uses to escape the drudgery of everyday life, to help enhance and better it. In post #2 he states that the US has never done anything outside it's borders unless it serves it's own interest and I was just pointing out that it's just not true. Mike, if I remember correctly you had a chap named chamberlin that appeased the nazis as they were goose stepping all over poland, so don't through that'we were in it first stuff'. Jay, britain has some truely great inventions on the horizon aka electric tank armor, skynet 5A, etc. but these are not applicable to everyone and please do not beliitle american history it goes back thousands of years (it's only a couple hundred for europeans in the americas).

I would like to know how many Iraqis actually feel safer with the foreign Coalition soldiers walking their streets.

This may be old hat, but......
to all fellow US Americans reading this: why aren't we in the streets with outrage at being lied to by our government about weapons of mass destruction???? Does being a patriat mean blindly following the blind?

We have had no business in the country of Iraq from the get go.
If it is humanitarian aid, this guns and battle stuff, then why weren't/aren't we in Ruanda, Congo, Uganda, Sudan, East Timor, and so on and so forth?

Geo, a fair amount of those countries you've mentioned already have sizeable UN deployments.

In response to the concept that a great many people were lied to, yes, it's more than likely true, to larger and smaller degrees.

So what? People have already lost their jobs over this, and circling around the 'Who Lied to Who and Who Told Him To Lie' point isn't going to solve the problem.

Had the Coalition waltzed in, saved the day, and waltzed out, nobody would have been bothered.

This in-fighting is precisely what enemies like Bin Laden would like. The Coalitions indecision, and that of the European Union, and even the bickering inside the Iraqi Government, could bring about the Greater War we're all terrified of.

I ask you all, pointedly, how all this in-fighting, all this finger jabbing, all this blame-throwing, stops that war. Because I'm not seeing it, honestly.

Some may call me a blind patriot, and I may very well be. But I'd rather be a blind patriot than a man watching the world collapse around him.

america is not a real country, without heavy dependence on oil powered technology, usa will revert back to it's natural state of wilderness, the iraqi fighters know this, that's why they've held out for so long, britains cultural and civilised facade will benefit it in the long run, usa's revealing of it's true colours will only hasten it's economic complications.

YOU ALL HAVE THE SOLUTIONS, THE U.S. HAS GOT ITS OWN INTEREST RIGHT? WELL I DONT KNOW WHAT THE HELL WE TOOK FROM THERE YET. I HAVE NOT SEEN ANY GAS FOR .20 CENTS A GALLON. ITS A NICE THOUGHT THAT WE WOULD TRY TO UNSCREW IRAQ BUT WITH PEOPLE WHO DONT APPRECIATE OUR LOSSES AND SOME THAT DONT WANT US THERE MAYBE WE SHOULD PULL OUT AND LET THEM KILL THEM SELVES. EXCUSE US FOR YOUR PEOPLES PROBLEMS.

Iraq is not really a country, never was. Like so many states, it's an idea dreamt up by the old colonial powers. It existed as a nation-state for so long because of brutality. Now, in the absence of an iron hand, it is unravelling in the most horrific way.

What is happening there is one of the greatest tragedies of recent history and my heart goes out to all those affected by what is very definitely a civil war.

It isn't really surprising that the US has had so many changes of heart. They went in with an air of invincibility, convinced that their methods would work. Now that they haven't, the administration hasn't a clue what to do.

The analogy of lab rats used by the blogger is spot on. The trouble is the American men in white coats don't even know what the experiment is anymore!

Remember that no one forced the amaricans to go in there, no point in directing your misery at iraq.
The americans control the checkpoints into baghdad so why are they letting the car bombers in? Do the americans want the car bombers getting in or are the americans lying about how much power they have for controlling baghdad/iraq.
Colonial powers always exaggerate their achievements and invent events that never took place. How could the English have so much power nearly 100 years ago to reshape the middle east, when USA/UK/Ozztralia/Italy/Spain/Poland/Japan/Denmark etc. can't direct anything in Iraq in this modern age of having WMDs/computerized weapons systems.
It's easy to be united in times of wealth, but when a country is getting poorer the cracks become tears (anyone check the dollar value lately, no offence). I hear that the Welsh are having trouble coming to terms with their "Britishness".

In poll after poll for the last three years an increasing majority of Iraqis say they want the foreign occupation out. These aren't polls by Ba'athists, al-Qaeda or Iran: the polls are by American and British media companies and American universities. How can this 75% majority express their opinion? Only through large street demonstrations, private conversations, and armed resistance. Any political organization through the media or political parties is blocked by the Americans: no anti-occupation organization is allowed to have a known address, all who open are raided by American troops and their Iraqi allies.
No candidate can run on on an anti-occupation platform. So the electorate, deprived of voting for the end of the occupation has to settle for a choice of Iranian pawns and American pawns.
The Iraqi minority in favor of the occupation are the unoccupied Kurds and the remnant of Shi`a who still favor Iran's plan to use the Iraqi Sunni and the Americans to weaken each other for as long as possible.
Don't expect Iranian allies among the Shi'a, especially Sistami and al-Hakim of SCIRI, to make the necessary accomodations to Sunni opinion.
The Americans will leave, it may make two more elections and four years more to make it plain to the American power elite that the American people can't be scared into subsidizing the multinational oil companies with blood and taxes forever.

very well put. We have now been subjected to 4 years of american misjudgement and bad management. It started with dissolution of the armed forces and security and was followed by allowing iraqi "politicians" to dominate a very charged political scene in iraq, only for them to prove their deceitful natures and untrustworthy actions. The latest american "plan" of putting up a wall around aadhamya was so fiercly blocked by all parties concerned (that would be the citizens of iraq, and not the americans!) that all of a sudden after the big hooha nothing is mentioned of it.
Iraqis have shown that they are one nation, sunni, shiite, arabic, turkmen, kurdish, mandeans and yazidis, christians and jews, we are all iraqis who hold our heads high when we hear our country being mentioned. it is true that when the word baghdad is said in a sentence every iraqi sheds a tear........this is how much iraq means to all iraqis. so divide and conquer is not working for the americans due to iraqi solidarity, and one day the foreign influences affecting a very small minority of ill educated iraqis will diminish, and we can once again proudly say our country, the cradle of civilisation is truly a great nation once more.

very well put. We have now been subjected to 4 years of american misjudgement and bad management. It started with dissolution of the armed forces and security and was followed by allowing iraqi "politicians" to dominate a very charged political scene in iraq, only for them to prove their deceitful natures and untrustworthy actions. The latest american "plan" of putting up a wall around aadhamya was so fiercly blocked by all parties concerned (that would be the citizens of iraq, and not the americans!) that all of a sudden after the big hooha nothing is mentioned of it. By the way, since when was fighting an occupying force called an insurgency? the french were "la resistance"....the americans were "revolutionaries", so why should iraqi freedom fighters be called terrorists and insurgents? if hitler had invaded the UK or the US fighting the nazis would have been fighting an occupying force....i fail to see the difference with iraq!

Iraqis have shown that they are one nation, sunni, shiite, arabic, turkmen, kurdish, mandeans and yazidis, christians and jews, we are all iraqis who hold our heads high when we hear our country being mentioned. it is true that when the word baghdad is said in a sentence every iraqi sheds a tear........this is how much iraq means to all iraqis. so divide and conquer is not working for the americans due to iraqi solidarity, and one day the foreign influences affecting a very small minority of ill educated iraqis will diminish, and we can once again proudly say our country, the cradle of civilisation is truly a great nation once more.

I agree with your post for the most part, I'm an American and i'm deeply sorry for what we have done. I honestly think maybe it might of been best if Saddam was left in power. I wasn't over there, so I dont know how bad/good of a ruler he was. But I do know that he was a neutralizer in that region.
I have one question though.
to many American's it seems as if you guys don't want to live in peace. You guys kill kids, women, anybody that is in a market. Why can't you guys just get along and PEACEFULLY rebel against the US and terrorists that want to do you guys harm. Al queda wants ya'll back in the 1400's. You guys are a great nation that can be a power in the world. Are your religious differences with shia/sunni that strong that you must blow each other up for it?
George Bush is the worse US President ever by the way.

the plain and simple fact is the world is at the beginning of a downward spiral. With the decline of natural recourses around the planet major world powers are becoming desperate to maintain their controle of emerging powers. Iraq, while in the spotlight today, will be nothing but a footnote in history come twenty years from now, (the same as vietnam but to a lesser extent) the real crisis to come in future years wont be from the middle east because lets face it alternate fuel sources are available such as ethenal grown from crops and if there is one thing america can do its produce huge crop surpluss. Once the dependancy on oil is reduced a thousand fold countries will lose complete interest in the middle east because lets face it know one but arabs want that pile of dirt.Im a firm believer that a major military conflict will take place within the next fifty years and by major i dont mean these little brush fires in the arab lands.
Asia is emerging economicly and militaraly as a serious competitor to u.s and europion powers and if theirs one thing that always holds true is the two biggest kids on the block always fight

The points made by Salam Pax are tragically true. But America will never understand Iraq because 'the map is not the territory' and the country of Iraq is not the map of its oil resources fervidly debated in secret by Cheney, Bush and Blair. Neither is it the ever-changing strategic map used by the US military occupation command.
The Bush Administration is a front for the US fossil fuel industry. This war is part of their master policy to keep the US running on oil and coal, in order to secure another trillion dollars of profit - in the face of reason and all the scientific evidence that fossil fuels are running down and causing global warming at the same time. What is being played out in Iraq, at the expense of the Iraqi people, is the last great struggle to maintain the world energy monopoly [80%] of fossil fuels. In this, the 'terrorists', despite their cruel atrocities, have history on their side. Iraqi oil is worth more to the Muslim future in the ground than in the gas tanks of 'the American way of life'.

If the US and other 'Coalition' forces fail to understand the Iraqi mentality, is it any wonder. Under Saddam Hussain, human rights and freedoms were denied to the majority of Iraqi citizens. WMDs were used against the Kurds, the Marsh Arabs lost their marshes and an estimated 300,000 Iraqis were slaughtered over ten years. After the US 'intevention'Iraqis now have unprecedented freedoms and human rights, including the right to read this website, and sadly the freedom to kill each other. The Iraqi people were given a great chance for a better life. They (and they alone) have 'blown' it. Who is destroying the infrastructure? Who is looting the power stations and hospitals and sabotaging the oil? Who has created the insecurity on the streets? Who are the suicide bombers? Not the US / GB who have offered not just to help Iraq rebuild but sacrificed their troops lives for the freedom of the Iraqi people. If Iraqis really want the US and other 'occupiers' out, then all they need to do is put their own house in order. Creating chaos will only keep the 'occupiers' there longer. Do Iraqis simply want a common enemy so they have an excuse for the shambles they have created. Do they need someone else to blame?

I suggest we actually do what the Iraqis seem to want and withdraw all 'occupation' forces. Then they will have no-one else to blame if they destroy each other - just hope the Kurds keep out of it - they seem to be the only ones with their brains engaged.

If the US and other 'Coalition' forces fail to understand the Iraqi mentality, is it any wonder. Under Saddam Hussain, human rights and freedoms were denied to the majority of Iraqi citizens. WMDs were used against the Kurds, the Marsh Arabs lost their marshes and an estimated 300,000 Iraqis were slaughtered over ten years. After the US 'intevention'Iraqis now have unprecedented freedoms and human rights, including the right to read this website, and sadly the freedom to kill each other. The Iraqi people were given a great chance for a better life. They (and they alone) have 'blown' it. Who is destroying the infrastructure? Who is looting the power stations and hospitals and sabotaging the oil? Who has created the insecurity on the streets? Who are the suicide bombers? Not the US / GB who have offered not just to help Iraq rebuild but sacrificed their troops lives for the freedom of the Iraqi people. If Iraqis really want the US and other 'occupiers' out, then all they need to do is put their own house in order. Creating chaos will only keep the 'occupiers' there longer. Do Iraqis simply want a common enemy so they have an excuse for the shambles they have created. Do they need someone else to blame?

I suggest we actually do what the Iraqis seem to want and withdraw all 'occupation' forces. Then they will have no-one else to blame if they destroy each other - just hope the Kurds keep out of it - they seem to be the only ones with their brains engaged.

If the US and other 'Coalition' forces fail to understand the Iraqi mentality, is it any wonder. Under Saddam Hussain, human rights and freedoms were denied to the majority of Iraqi citizens. WMDs were used against the Kurds, the Marsh Arabs lost their marshes and an estimated 300,000 Iraqis were slaughtered over ten years. After the US 'intevention'Iraqis now have unprecedented freedoms and human rights, including the right to read this website, and sadly the freedom to kill each other. The Iraqi people were given a great chance for a better life. They (and they alone) have 'blown' it. Who is destroying the infrastructure? Who is looting the power stations and hospitals and sabotaging the oil? Who has created the insecurity on the streets? Who are the suicide bombers? Not the US / GB who have offered not just to help Iraq rebuild but sacrificed their troops lives for the freedom of the Iraqi people. If Iraqis really want the US and other 'occupiers' out, then all they need to do is put their own house in order. Creating chaos will only keep the 'occupiers' there longer. Do Iraqis simply want a common enemy so they have an excuse for the shambles they have created. Do they need someone else to blame?

I suggest we actually do what the Iraqis seem to want and withdraw all 'occupation' forces. Then they will have no-one else to blame if they destroy each other - just hope the Kurds keep out of it - they seem to be the only ones with their brains engaged.

Frankly speaking, I am disgusted to hear this Gentleman, Salam Pax, spout about anything that is going on in Iraq today. Have we forgotten that he became the darling of the western press, that was for the most part pro-war, precisely because of his pro-invasion stance prio to and during the initial invasion. Was this not the guy who hailed the American Army as it polvorized Bagdad in "Shock and awe"? Now here he is spouting about this failed idea or that failed idea,Indeed just as his benefactor's (who had all mosrly been for the war) are also doing. This War indeed has a thousand bastard sons, and Salam Pax seems to be nephew at the very least.

I'd urge everyone to read the book "The End of Iraq" by the American author Peter Bernstein. In it he explains how Iraq was cobbled together after the British left the area in the mid 1920s. The main groups - Sunni, Shia, and Kurd have religious, tribal, and cultural hatreds going back over a thousand years. Our lying, ignorant, and arrogant President (and his inner circle of cronies) didn't even understand this until a few days or weeks before launching the war. They were also totally ignorant of the lesson of Yugoslavia, where the death of a relatively benign dictator resulted in central authority collapsing, and the same type of hatreds became a full fledged civil war, until a real international coalition brought in peacekeepers, divided the country into separate nations for the most part, and for our soldier-peacekeepers, hardly any died.

Bush of course, continues the war, for to admit he failed would do to him what it does to any dictator, which is fundamentally what he is. The cronies of dictators, once the dictator seriously loses face, turn on him to save their own skins. For him, the continuation of the war, the deaths of our soldiers are just pawns in a great big political game to consolidate power for the super-rich in America, while destroying the middle class, and stealing the Iraqi oil with and oil law that is just like the situation back in the 50s with Iran that ultimately gave us Khomeni, and led to the current situation with Iran.

Iraq is a goner MR. President. We continue to hear how the Iraqi army shows up missing 1/3 to 1/2 their roster, and then in 90 days they leave, while you extend the tours of our troops. The longer the war goes on, the more it becomes the greatest recruiting tools ever envisioned for Jihadism. It is a catastrophe for the world. It is time that the nations of the world rise up and demand that the US get out of Iraq. Yes it will be a bloody mess of ethnic cleansing and refugees - there are 4 million already - 1 in 6 Iraqis - but unless you can raise an army of 5 million or more while we stand virtually alone in Iraq, and watch tens of thousands of our soldiers be murdered every year - which Americans will never never accept, thats where we are, and you put us there.

Bush and company are to blame for this catastrophe. We need the other nations of the world to stand up to the Bush administration, and demand its total impeachment or resignation. and put teeth into their actions by recalling ambassadors, etc. It is perhaps in terms of its world wide context the greatest foreign policy blunder of all time.

Yo Pax,

I appreciate your candor...now for some input from a US Soldier--one who'll have boots on ground there in roughly six weeks.
I, for one, am so tired of the excuses (yes, excuses) which enable/allow for (or so they perceive) select citizens of Iraq to continue on with aiding and abetting insurgents and otherwise scheming, all too frequently, other than peaceful actions against the US and Iraqi Forces there, military and police.
It's really very simple (and this is true whether you agree with why the US went in there in the first place or no): the many Iraqis who continue to hate AND espouse violence, cannot have it both ways. That is, simply put, they cannot a) keep griping about US Forces being an occupier [there] while b) when US Forces have, in the past, drawn down its number of forces there, the violence prdictably picked up.
Do NOT be naive about the aforementioned issue. The US, as a super power, knows (and has been trying diligently) to fix that which it "broke". But no country (super power or not) can affect a desired change towards good, and subsequently draw down/no longer "occupy" another country, until such time as the indigenous citizenry wakes up and does that which is legal and proper/non violent.
Truth hurts, but it's the only thing that can get said cradle of "civilization" back onto the right track.

What I find baffling to me is why hasn't Maliki set into law the oil revenue sharing agreement that would "calm the fighting" down drastically. I know it's been drawn up, they just need to put into affect. My plan from day one about the Iraqi oil is that the oil belongs to the people of Iraq and they all should share in the proceeds from the sale of that oil for every person that lives in Iraq. Why is this so hard for the Iraqi government to get done. You would think that the Sunnis would be smart enough to reallize this and try to keep the peace with the Shia knowing that as soon as there is peace in Iraq every Iraqi would benefit financially from the oil that is sold. So what's the problem. If the Iraqi's would quit killing each other, both the US and the Brits would already be gone from Iraq, so quit pointing fingers at everyone else and lay blame on the clerics and extremists in your own country. For all of the coalition troops in Iraq, God bless and hopefully you will be home soon.

I have read all of the posts given on this blog and I have decided to say a couple of things.

Now, where to start because there are so many different facets to this. As an American in the National Guard I have a couple of thoughts for people reading this who are not Americans. First, refering to what mike and jon talked about, I am not going to say that one country has contributed more or less to the world than another. According to what standard can someone make that distinction? There is some merit in that the US was the deciding factor in WW2 and to a lesser extent WW1. However, to ignore the accomplishments of RAF pilots defending Britain alone in '40 and '41 is just plain insulting, or the millions who died on the Russian Front. Enough said...moving on.
As an American soldier I feel betrayed by my government in many ways. Again, where to start? First, the ignorant bravado that the Bush Administration displayed by thinking that we would be hailed as "liberators" in Iraq and that Iraqi's would flock to us with arms open thanking us for toppling a cruel dictator. Yet, it goes much deeper than that. Because the American populace bought it! Americans as a whole have shown their complete lack of deeper understanding in regards to international politics and history. To think that we (Americans) could go into a country, Iraq, and bring democracy to a country that has no tradition of it is perposterous. If we look back at "democracy" in Western society its pregrancy has been very long. From 1100 A.D. when the Charter of Liberties was issued (a forerunner of the Magna Carter) through to the political philosophy of Hobbes and Locke (which Americans take the majority of their influence from)it has been a long road. It has taken a thousand years to develop into what it is today. That alone should raise some eyebrows. However, we should also consider the fact that we have a country which was artificially created after WW1 by the British and the French. That's right, we can't just "blame the British" for Iraq. If you look at the borders of Iraq it was drawn that way by the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916 as a way of protecting mutual areas of interest for both the French and the British and was established in 1920 at the conference at San Remo. (all the while ignoring Arab nationalism)
Enough....moving on.
So why did the Americans buy the Bush WMD argument? Well, for those Americans who are only informed by media soundbites the case seems logical and success assured. "We have the strongest military in the world" so of course we are going to win the war. "Democracy is the best form of goverment" so of course the Iraqi's are going to just love it. And of course, WMD's are a threat to national security so let's "rock and roll" and as Toby Keith so delicately put it "we'll put a boot in your a.. it's the American way" and off we go to save the Iraqi's...we are the "good guys" afterall.
Then we move on to Iraq's many different religious/ethnic groups. There are Kurds in the north who identify themselves as such and want nothing to do with Iraq. We have a majority shiite population that is angry about sunni political/economic domination and oppression for hundreds of years (Ottoman Empire) and furthermore prescribe to a form of Islam that is incompatible with sunni's. Then we have sunni's who are the significant minority (after the Kurds) who are terrified at the prospect of a majority Shiite population that can vote into law practically anything because in democracy everyone gets an equal vote.
Then we have Americans back at home who aren't understanding why we are losing this war. I can speak from personal experience that at every single drill that I go to all you hear is how herioc our sacrifices are and how we are "defending freedom". I am to the point that if I am told one more time that I am "defending freedom and democracy" by fighting in Iraq I am going to throw up. Of course, though, they have to tell us this so that we will leave our wives, families, jobs, and lives behind and serve in Iraq for 15-18 months in a war where we must treat everyone like a possible insurgent who might kill us.
I think that history may very well judge the war in Iraq to be one of the greateset blunders in American history with much farther reaching implications than the Vietnam War ever could. And for many Americans that is a hard pill to swallow. It is especially hard for those who have served in Iraq or for loved ones who have watched their loved ones leave and not return, or come home wounded physically and/or mentally. Should this be surprising to anyone? The U.S. is a culture of violence. Look at the movies that we watch like 300 . We idolize fighting and killing. It looks real clean in the movies, but I assure you that in real life even the bad guys die gruesome and horrible deaths. Where is the glory in that?
I am not going to presume that I have the answers to Iraq. However, I do know that we cannot expect of someone else something that we don't expect of ourselves. How can we just say "why don't you Iraqi's just learn how to live and let live and just get along". How about the next time someone insults you or tries to pick a fight with you at the bar (or pub if your British) you resist your instinct to fight back and instead try and understand where they are in their life. When someone can do that then they can start talking about political/historical/religious forgiving and getting along.

The truth is that until people find that peace is inside of them they will always be reaching out in the outside for material things to satisfy their urges. Unfortunately history has shown that people do not have the tolerance and compassion towards others beliefs. Leaders that expound hate and violence do it from a lack of understanding and the people who follow them from ignorance. Each sits on his side of the fence and mud slings (or bombs) the others. The only way is through nonviolence because that is the only environment in which all can begin to appreciate each other in our wonderful diversity. The world would be a terrible place without diversity of cultures, religions, races, languages... think about this next time you relate to someone who is different from yourself...