Curious George Gets Iraqtile Dysfunction
...follows suit. In his book, The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War without End, Peter Galbraith takes an in-depth look at the historical framework for the conflict, indicts the fundamental misconceptions surrounding the situation both at the time and the present, and offers an alternative to the current quagmire, showing how this war will truly define the Bush presidency and dominate American foreign policy for years to come.
The first few chapters of Galbraith’s work open with a stark statement that would leave many republicans baffled. With seven words he obliterates the prima facia rationale for the 2003 invasion; granted, it’s easier to be critical in hindsight, but this one sentence brings to light just how easily some of us were duped into supporting the war. This shocking realization should remain for any reader a reminder as to how easily we can be tricked into something terrible if we refuse to examine the facts and give into fear. From this starting point, Galbraith leaps through a whirlwind of tempestuous conflict in between the Tigris and the Euphrates. These historical conflicts are important in beginning to grasp the division between Shiites, Sunnis, and the Kurds. An important factor in this division is that Iraq itself has no singular ethnic identity; it is a country patched together out of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire, but with three distinct provincial fabrics. This forced association creates a bitter schism that was hopefully not the intent of Lloyd George when he drew the country into existence. However, the most terrible miscalculations were yet to come. Throughout the Iran-Iraq war and the Reagan and Bush Senior presidencies, America kept on focusing on the potential of what Iraq could be; a geostrategically placed ally in the middle of unfriendly territory with a wealth of oil reserves. Thus the policies of...
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