Iraq : Now What?

The recent reports about U.S. pulling out the troops from the Iraq all together or at least, not increasing the troop level is depressing as well as sickening. The common arguments in pulling out troops goes like this - One, US has no business of being in the Iraq at first place and we need to pull out of Iraq as soon as possible. Second, US is the rallying point for the Jihadist in the middle-east and if US disappears from the scene then the budding jihadist movement will fizzle out. And, third one - the most inane one amongst the others - is that Iraq war is hurting US economy and war expenditure is burdening the US budget.

So, let's deal with each of these three points one by one.

I partially agree with the first point. US should have never invaded Iraq. They should have attacked Iran or Pakistan (or better Saudi Arabia). Iran is soon going to emerge as te spokesperson for all the terrorist attack around the world, whether the jihadist like it or not. And Iran with its huge oil reservior is going to hold world economy at the ransom. If they get the nuclear weapons then the scenario is going to be worst than expected. So, it would have been prudent to root out the evil in its childhood. Of course, Iran would have provided the stiff resistance but defeating them would have been worth every penny spent and every life lost. About Pakistan - to say anything against this cancerous country would be an understatement.

Second, US was a rallying point for the Jihadist for long time. Way before the Iraq war. Remember the September 11 attack ? It happened before Iraq war ! In any case it makes sense to engage enemy in their own backyard. And, even if US did leave Iraq, the Jihadist movement will gain strength because they will project US exit as their victory. Also, the current violence in Iraq is the result of infighting between Shia’s and Sunnis rather between US army and Muslims. It may sound preposterous but US seems to more like a bystander in the gory play between Iraqi Shia’s and Sunnis.

Third, Is Iraq war really hurting the economy? I mean China and India are on the roll here And, all the economic indicators in the domestic US economy are positive with corporate profit are over the roof. (and so are the corporate pay checks ! ) And, If unemployment and poverty level is increasing in US in last few years then it has more to do with Bush governments domestic policies than foreign policies.

But the concerns that are raised against the war stems from the fact that most of their American citizens refuse to believe that their country is indeed a superpower. They have to understand that they are the sole superpower in the world and with characteristic traits like - tremendous military expenditure, insatiable consumer appetite for everything and insurmountable habit of the political class to meddle into the internal matters of other countries – they (America) for all practical purposes are an empire.

And, to maintain an empire i.e. to maintain the higher level of living standard and continuous growth, they have to invade – physically or financially - other countries in order to grab and secure the valuable and limited natural resources. I mean, that’s what empires do.

The Bush government media relations are quite pathetic. Bush is an extremely dumb person to begin with but more ever, they advertised, marketed and executed this war quite shabbily. If US government balking under the pressure from the opposition party, decides to bolt from the Iraq, not only Muslim terrorist wreck havoc across the globe but US will cease to be an empire.

In any case, given a choice between US and Saudi fuckers or knuckle head like Ahmadinejad, dominating the Oil resources, I will always choose the US.