Quick Iraq Rant

Here is a quick thought I threw down on electronic paper today. I had been meaning to write about this for a while so I just spit it out. It may not be the most pleasurable read and I bet there are typos and grammatical mistakes but what's new, eh?

I can’t take it anymore. It has become too much. Why are liberals arguing with me telling me that we have to stay in Iraq? They are telling me that since we went in and smashed it up we “owe” it to the Iraq people to stay and fix the mess we made. It is a new “white man’s burden” or so it seems.
Then you have the conservatives who are just talking complete nonsense, and the sooner they realize it the more likely they won’t get trounced at the polls. Their line of argument, which is very similar to the liberal’s, is that we can’t leave because there would be chaos and Al-Qaida, which experts argue doesn’t even exist, will set up camp in order to plan new attacks against America.
So both sides are arguing that we must stay in Iraq, for very similar reasons, and both talk of only two options. Our options, so it goes, are either we pull every troop out or we stay indefinitely. Either way at the end of the day we will still be in Iraq and we will still be doing everything in our power to exercise control over their oil resources. The Democrats and the Republicans may differ slightly over the reasons why we must continue our occupation of Iraq but none are telling us the truth. That truth being that Iraq will be and must be a part of the American Empire.
We are told, almost ad nasuem that we have only two options, immediate withdraw, which is impossible, and staying forever which will be impossible. Really? There are only two options, which seems odd to me. I may not know a whole hell of a lot about the human nature but it seems that there must be more than two ways to look at a problem.
One plan never talked about is going to the UN and asking for help. Do Americans really believe that we are the only ones who can fix this mess, when our mere presence makes matters worse? Whenever an American intellectual talks about leaving Iraq they talk about a power vacuum that, they claim, would be created and how dangerous it would be to America, the only people who matter. Yet if we asked the UN to help us with Iraq, my guess is that many other countries would step up, only of course, if it was mandated through the UN.
So why don’t we go to the UN and ask for help? How come no major Presidential candidate has even suggested it? Is it because they know already what the answer would be, it does seem like these assholes all own crystal balls or at least that is what they want us all to believe. Though in reality one would have to guess that they actually have the Magic Eight Ball instead. Or could it be that if we truly internationalized the conflict then American companies wouldn’t get first dibs on all of Iraq’s wealth, infrastructure, reconstruction contracts, oil and on. Would it be possible that the UN would take over the granting of contracts in Iraq? I don’t know but one must admit that it seems conspicuously absent from all debate on the topic.
We were told, after the weapons weren’t found, that the reason we went to Iraq was to destroy the country so that the naturally occurring Democracy could finally flourish. There are some sticky points about that democracy. For instance, an unelected body gets to decide who is allowed to run for office and there were a few other laws put in place as Viceroy Bremer was departing. Either way we went to war in order to bring Democracy to Iraq. I believe the quote was, “freedom is on the march” which if one has ever read Orwell they would gather that actually the complete opposite is occurring but I digress.
Now when it comes to whether our troops continue to occupy Iraq or whether they leave it seems completely obvious that only one group of people should be allowed to make that choice, the Iraqis themselves. Still I have not heard a single “respectable” politician argue that we ask the Iraqis what they want us to do since it is their country, at least in the minds of non-imperialists. The question of what happens to Iraq should be in the hands of the Iraqis not us. We claim it is our duty, or what I prefer to call the “new white man’s burden”, to take care of them. They no not of what they do we are to believe. They somehow are lesser people unable to decide what is best for them? Only Hillary and Rudy know what is best for the people of Iraq. Am I the only person who thinks that this is fucked up? It isn’t even part of the acceptable mainstream discourse to even suggest we allow the Iraqis to decide their future. Why is that?
In the end it must come down to Empire. We have an occupation that is hugely unpopular yet no politicians are arguing to get the hell out. Instead they all have plans of keeping tens of thousands of troops “in the area” to fight the terrorists, which I thought meant anyone fighting the occupation of their country. Instead the main priority for them is to push Iraq to change their oil laws, the reasoning of which should be transparent. Our mainstream moderate politicians all want us to stay with massive troop levels in the Middle East until the oil runs out. This should be painfully obvious. It isn’t just George who thinks that oil under their feet is ours, but I think so do all the rest.