{"id":9159,"date":"2006-11-25T12:10:10","date_gmt":"2006-11-25T17:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9159.html"},"modified":"2006-11-25T12:10:10","modified_gmt":"2006-11-25T17:10:10","slug":"whats-so-civil-about-war-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/whats-so-civil-about-war-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s so civil about war anyway…."},"content":{"rendered":"

By any reasonable measure, Iraq is now out of control<\/a>. It’s reached a point in which the LA Times has stopped the semantics game<\/a> news outlets have been toying with for months and started using the appropriate phrase.<\/p>\n

Iraq’s civil war<\/b> worsened Friday as Shiite and Sunni Arabs engaged in retaliatory attacks after coordinated car bombings that killed more than 200 people in a Shiite neighborhood the day before. A main Shiite political faction threatened to quit the government, a move that probably would cause its collapse and plunge the nation deeper into disarray. (emphasis added)<\/p>\n

The massacre Thursday in Sadr City — a stronghold of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr and his Al Mahdi militia — sparked attacks around the country, reinforced doubts about the effectiveness of the Iraqi government and U.S. military and emboldened Shiite vigilantes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The NYT quotes<\/a> Bush administration officials saying they don’t “believe” it’s a civil war, but at this point, what the folks who create their own reality believe or not is largely irrelevant. As Time noted<\/a> yesterday, Iraq’s violence has spun “beyond anyone’s control.”<\/p>\n

If this week’s announcement that President Bush is to meet Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in the capital of neighboring Jordan raised eyebrows, by Friday it was abundantly clear why the meeting couldn’t be held in Baghdad — the Iraqi capital is under siege. After a day of open sectarian warfare on the streets had claimed more than 200 lives, the city’s airport is closed and its residents are forced to remain indoors under a curfew.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bush is due to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki this week, presumably to pressure him to act against the Shi’ite militias. Now, however, Maliki is facing intense pressure <\/a>not to see Bush at all.
\n<\/p>\n

The White House expects Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to show up in Jordan for a meeting next week with President Bush, despite threats by militant Shiites to quit the government unless he snubs Bush.<\/p>\n

Choosing to meet with Bush could put Maliki on a collision course with Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Shiites’ powerful Madhi Army militia.<\/p>\n

Sadr said yesterday that he and 30 followers would “suspend” their involvement in Maliki’s shaky coalition government if Maliki goes to the Jordan summit with Bush.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s reached a point that has led Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a conservative Republican and decorated veteran, to give up hope<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The time for more U.S. troops in Iraq has passed. We do not have more troops to send and, even if we did, they would not bring a resolution to Iraq. Militaries are built to fight and win wars, not bind together failing nations. We are once again learning a very hard lesson in foreign affairs: America cannot impose a democracy on any nation — regardless of our noble purpose.<\/p>\n

We have misunderstood, misread, misplanned and mismanaged our honorable intentions in Iraq with an arrogant self-delusion reminiscent of Vietnam. Honorable intentions are not policies and plans. Iraq belongs to the 25 million Iraqis who live there…. The United States must begin planning for a phased troop withdrawal from Iraq.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m wondering, what more will it take for the supporters of this war to break with their position? This is not a rhetorical question. In recent weeks, we’ve heard about “one more push,” and the need to “go long.” The only way we’ll lose, the president insists, is if we leave. It’s a position embraced by misguided White House allies like Joe Lieberman, John McCain, most congressional Republicans, and the vast majority of the conservative base.<\/p>\n

What, exactly, would the conditions have to look like for them to change their mind? How long are they willing to tolerate the status quo — or, more accurately, the deteriorating<\/i> status quo — before they recognize this war as folly?<\/p>\n

We hear a lot about six-month increments. How many “Friedman units” are they willing to tolerate? What happens when these intervals pass with no improvements? Is there ever<\/i> a point in their minds in which it’s acceptable to acknowledge reality and get the hell out of hell?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By any reasonable measure, Iraq is now out of control. It’s reached a point in which the LA Times has stopped the semantics game news outlets have been toying with for months and started using the appropriate phrase. Iraq’s civil war worsened Friday as Shiite and Sunni Arabs engaged in retaliatory attacks after coordinated car […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}