Iraq-t-Dumpti Sat on A Wall...Can We Stop the Impending Fall?

It is too early to second guess Iraq but we all have and we all do. That is how the human mind works. If you are objective and honest and fair, you may find some sympathy for the objective in the Iraq Incursion. It all made sense in theory. The premise was that "The Religion of Peace" was hijacked by evil-doers who took advantage of the poverty and chaos of failed and despotic regimes. The Muslim world was in need of liberation and reform. It was logical that those who inherited the ideals of The Enlightenment would believe in those ideals and had a vision of applying them to Islam. Like the word or not, it was a crusade, but a noble one.

It was also very much the belief in diversity and multi-culturalism, mix and match, yearning to be free, we can all get along, all in the parlance of the times. Saddam's Iraq was the perfect place to start. It had the right address in the right neighborhood between Syria and Iran. It also had the enticement of unfinished business. Most people criticized the first Bush Administration for "not finishing the job". Here I plead guilty.

The mission was also based on the very naive belief that Islam was just another religion and morally equivalent to all other religions. We did not know otherwise. We believed it to be true and practiced what we believed. Islam had been given complete access to the Western Hospitality Suite. 911 opened some doubts when the guests trashed the place. The rogue theory and metaphor of hi-jacked planes was attached to a hi-jacked religion. Afghanistan needed to be both punished and liberated and Iraq was next.

It offered a long term fix and for awhile it appeared to have the possibility of working. Purple fingers viewed through rose colored glasses, a real rainbow coalition. Well, we learned a thing or two from the experience. Check that, we are beginning to learn. We are learning that Islam is not the same. We are learning that the clap-trap multi-cultural diversity worshiping establishment of the Left may have tossed us a real ticking time bomb with a virgin seeker attached to it.

The West is changing. When I, for one, started using the phrase, "Islam is the Problem", I got some nervous laughs and "some you shouldn't say that"s. Now, it is hardly noticed except as a truism. We may not be winning the WOT but we are beginning to win the war on euphemisms.
"Religion of Peace" is on the way out but we have a very long way to go. The process has begun.

As Viet Nam was but one part of the Cold War, Iraq shall be just one part of the realignment of Islam to the rest of the world. We need to look at in in that context. We will have no choice, because Islam will keep reminding us. The Telegraph has an interesting opinion piece on a likely option for Iraq. It is a recognition of the reality that Iraq as a single country makes as much sense as Yugoslavia did. Read it and keep your powder dry.

The only solution left for Iraq: a five-way split

"Change is in the air. The recent pronouncements of General Sir Richard Dannatt and Margaret Beckett suggest that a more pessimistic outlook regarding Iraq's future is enveloping Whitehall.

Even the previously bullish US administration is beginning to show cracks in its resolve. Once unvoiced fears — about civil war, insurgent victory, Iranian takeover through Shi'a militias, even the Balkanisation of Iraq — are now being spoken aloud and even listened to, and may result in new strategies emerging.

But the choices available to policy-planners are few and far between, and are now governed largely by the realities in Iraq, rather than by any plan emanating from the embattled Coalition."...