We tried, we failed

Here's a latest bit of great wisdom and diplomacy from our present administration: On Monday, Feb. 20, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, warned Iraqi politicians that they risk a loss of American support if they do not establish a genuine national unity government, saying the United States will not invest its resources in institutions run by sectarians.

Wow! Now that is a truly incredulous, disingenuous, and telling remark for two very obvious reasons: #1: If the administration had listened to the Middle East experts (and if George W. had listened to his father) before ever launching the first aircraft over Baghdad three years ago it would have realised that the sectarian nature of the Iraq system (economic, social, political, religious) is so strong that it will dominate whatever government survives the bombing, the occupation, and the subsequent political regime. This has been well documented. #2: The United States will not invest its resources in institutions run by sectarians? How about the extreme religious right in our own country dominating decisions coming out of the oval office these days? Is that not sectarian?

What we are seeing here, it appears, is the beginning of carefully crafted rhetoric coming from the oval office which will give us reasons to pull back from Iraq; discontinue support in troops and money; find a way to convince the American public that its finally Mission Accomplished; and show the world what a great job we did up until the point we turned things over to the Iraqi's who were not up to the task.

Too bad…..we tried, they failed!

On to Iran.

Bob McClellan

Polson