Current Events, Perspective, Political

Saddam, Saddam, we want Saddam

From CNN: U.S. officials rethink hopes for Iraq democracy

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Nightmarish political realities in Baghdad are prompting American officials to curb their vision for democracy in Iraq. Instead, the officials now say they are willing to settle for a government that functions and can bring security.

A workable democratic and sovereign government in Iraq was one of the Bush administration’s stated goals of the war.

But for the first time, exasperated front-line U.S. generals talk openly of non-democratic governmental alternatives, and while the two top U.S. officials in Iraq still talk about preserving the country’s nascent democratic institutions, they say their ambitions aren’t as “lofty” as they once had been.

“Democratic institutions are not necessarily the way ahead in the long-term future,” said Brig. Gen. John “Mick” Bednarek, part of Task Force Lightning in Diyala province, one of the war’s major battlegrounds.

The comments reflect a practicality common among Western diplomats and officials trying to win hearts and minds in the Middle East and other non-Western countries where democracy isn’t a tradition.

The failure of Iraq to emerge from widespread instability is a bitter pill for the United States, which optimistically toppled the Saddam Hussein regime more than four years ago…

Recap: We send 160,000 troops to a foreign country that did nothing to us (probably more like 400,000 with rotations and all). We take over 3,700 US Service deaths, tens of thousands of casualties, in excess of 500,000 Iraqis die (see all the gruesome numbers at Iraq Coalition Casualty Count) destroy the country, while our own roads and bridges fall apart, all so we can install a new Saddam?

Wouldn’t it have been well enough to leave the old guy in place? He had a government that function[ed] and [brought] security

Also see Wonkette: U.S. Generals Finally Admit They’re Not In Iraq For ‘Democracy,’ Either (caution – strong language).

Lord have mercy on us.