What’s Next?
More and more reports are coming out of Iraq that testify that the state of security has improved dramatically over one year ago. Various reasons are given ranging from the “surge” to General Patraeas to Prime Minister al Maliki. The “sons of Iraq” are a number of Sunni militia groups that are funded by the US and have augmented the Iraqi Army in Sunni held territory. They have also of late been singled out as haven been particularly effective in combatting “al Qaeda in Iraq” (not to be confused with the real al Qaeda that has always been in Pakistan and Afghanisatn). The big question is “what’s next”?
I would think that America’s morale responsibility is now or soon to be fulfilled. President George W Bush’s decision to invade and occupy Iraq carried with it a morale responsibility to rebuild the Government in the wake of the utter mess made by regime change. While Bush or Cheney may not think of it that way and may still be wistfully dreaming of a budding Middle East democracy, America broke Iraq, so it needed to fix it before leaving.
One can argue that the Maliki government is not all that stable (or democratic) and when US funding dries up, the “sons of Iraq” will do what ever is necessary to earn a living. Since the Sunni lands are relatively lacking in oil, the Sunnis have only two real options
- Regain power through force and direct the government purse towards Sunnis
- Mount military action against the Kurds and/or Shiites and regain some oil rich land.
The one thing that is clear is that the Sunnis will not go hungry or remain poor when there is so much wealth so nearby. You would think this would be a great driving force for a united Iraq where the enormous wealth was equitably distributed. Think again. The Middle East has no such examples. The average person has given the rights of enormous wealth to a few for peace and some food for themselves.
We need to think again and this time more clearly of why we would want to stay longer. The Middle East is not of strategic importance to the US. (You might say what about oil? The answer is that oil will be available under any conditions since without it the Middle East rulers have no income.) The bright light in America’s future is not a barrel of oil but rather a solar panel, a wind mill, or a geothermal pump.
This entry was posted on June 24, 2008 at 10:08 am and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Iraq War, John McCain, Politics, Republican Party. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: oil, middle east peace, Iraq policy
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