RESPONSE TO THE BOSTON BOMBINGS: LESSONS FROM IRAQ

4/22/13

This morning’s (i.e., Monday, 4/22/13’s, page A16) Wall Street Journal reports that this weekend’s local elections in Iraq drew turnout of only slightly more than 50%, very low by Iraqi standards.

The reasons given for the poor turnout are, as the Journal reports, the feeling throughout Iraq that the country “seems to be sliding back towards authoritarian rule” and that many Iraqis “complained that the same politicians dominate the political landscape regardless of vote results.”

More telling are the comments of educated, middle class Iraqi citizens interviewed by the Journal.  Haider Al Amily, a 27 year old physician, says of the election

“It’s show business.  The Iraqi people are sick of it.  I’ve voted every time, but this is the first time I didn’t go.  All the educated people didn’t go.”

Ramzy Mardini, a fellow at the Iraq Institute for Strategic Studies, opines

“Elections are happening, but politics in Iraq remains stuck in a time warp.  The fact that these elections are taking place means very little for Iraqi democracy.”

The doubtless highly representative comments of these two Iraqis lead reflexively to one question:   What on earth did we accomplish by George Bush’s excellent adventure in Iraq?   However, after a moment’s pause, these comments, and the general situation in Iraq, should lead to a better question:   Why on earth did we think it was our business to intervene in Iraq?   Why did we go along with the nonsensical, never explained motives of Mr. Bush for decimating Iraq, killing thousands of Americans, and spending hundreds of billions of dollars we didn’t have for who knows what ends?

These are worthwhile questions to contemplate as we face inevitable, increasing pressure from the neoconservatives, and their most salient media organs, the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Fox News, to respond to the Boston bombings by invading somebody…anybody.   See my 4/20/13 piece LET’S SEE…U.S. CITIZEN, CRIME ON U.S. SOIL…ENEMY COMBATANT?  HMM… along with today’s lead editorial in the Journal, “Enemy Combatants in Boston” and an op-ed piece in the Journal by Michael Mukasey entitled “Make No Mistake, It Was Jihad” (sic)