MN Star Tribune Editorial: Iraq/Is it becoming a lost cause?

[rndmprsn]

Editorial: Iraq/Is it becoming a lost cause?
September 18, 2004 ED

http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/4987168.html

The news about Iraq this week has been all bad. Indeed, if you read what the experts say, Iraq may now be a lost cause. Some sensible people are beginning to utter the unthinkable: Bring the troops home and refuse to pour more blood and money into an obvious -- and monumental -- U.S. defeat. That is not an easy notion to contemplate for two reasons: what it would leave in Iraq and the Middle East, and the explosive repercussions it would have for the United States at home and abroad. But that it is being uttered aloud in polite company underscores a reality Americans must face: There is no good road forward in Iraq.

...On the campaign trail, an odd double standard has appeared: Sen. John Kerry gets hammered unmercifully for not having what critics believe is a viable plan for dealing with Iraq. But President Bush gets a pass on 1) having personally created this monumental American disaster and 2) having no plan before the war and having none now to clean it up. Kerry does deal in nuance, but that can be a good thing when the alternative is to push blindly ahead with a policy that is demonstrably wrongheaded.

Too, as author and journalist Seymour Hersh observed recently, the reason Kerry's solutions may seem lacking to some is that there simply are no good answers to Iraq.

Meanwhile, young Americans keep dying. The 17 days of September, through Friday, cost 55 American lives, the highest rate since April. Bush insists progress is being made in Iraq; all the signs on the ground and most of the opinions from experts say otherwise. Going forward, Bush owes the American people an honest assessment of what the situation is and an honest explanation of how he intends to deal with it.

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[Nicholas_J]

1. Did you hear the statements of the Assistant Secretary of State today?

talking about the insurgents in Iraq stepping up attacks because they want to try to effect the American elections (another hint that the "terrorists" want to get Bush out).

[rndmprsn]

2. heard that

they'll do, say anything to win...it's all almost becoming part of the noise if t weren't so serious.

[gristy]

3. Here's my theory

The worse things get in Iraq, the more the electorate is going to swing behind bush. Why? Fear. Plain and simple. People are afraid. And with Iraq going to hell in a handbasket, people's primitive fear/flight response kicks in. Big time.

Flight? How does flight figure in this, you ask?

As the mounting horrors in Iraq drag down the Iraqis and threaten to drag down much of America with them, much of the American public must flea from this awful truth: that THEY are responsible for the tragedy in Iraq. That they have only themselves to blame. They cannot face this. So they vote for Bush.