BCT Editorial – 8/24/05

This page was last updated on August 24, 2005.

Prelude to anarchy; Editorial; Beaver County Times; August 24, 2005.

This is a continuation of the doom and gloom predictions we’ve seen since before the Iraq War started.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“‘Iraq’s oil exports were shut down Monday by a power cut that darkened parts of central and southern Iraq, including the country’s only functioning oil export terminals, Iraqi and foreign oil officials said.

“‘Exports through the country’s other main route, the northern export pipeline to Turkey, have long been halted by incessant sabotage.

“‘Iraqi officials said sabotage was also responsible for Monday’s blackout, which prevented oil from being pumped into tankers waiting at berths.’

“Those are the first three paragraphs from an Associated Press report earlier this week. Keep it in mind as President Bush and his minions cross the United States selling their blind vision of their failed policies. Two years after the president declared ‘mission accomplished,’ Iraq is uncontrollable.”

[RWC] President Bush never declared “mission accomplished” and the editorial author knows it.

“Sure, there are some areas where calm prevails and some reconstruction is taking place. But these minor accomplishments are offset by the inability of U.S. forces and Iraqi security units to control major parts of the country.”

[RWC] Did you notice the editorial didn’t describe the “minor accomplishments?”

“It was hard enough when insurgents were attacking American troops and their allies in the so-called Sunni Triangle. Now, the situation is becoming more ominous because Iraq is splintering along ethnic and religious grounds.”

[RWC] They aren’t “insurgents;” they are terrorists. Insurgents tend to go after military targets, not civilians. In Iraq, however, we see terrorists also targeting civilians.

“The Washington Post reports ‘Shiite and Kurdish militias, often operating as part of Iraqi government security forces, have carried out a wave of abductions, assassinations and other acts of intimidation, consolidating their control over territory across northern and southern Iraq and deepening the country’s divide along ethnic and sectarian lines, according to political leaders, families of the victims, human rights activists and Iraqi officials.’

“The paper reports ‘the militias, and the Shiite and Kurdish parties that control them, are creating their own institutions of authority, unaccountable to elected governments, the activists and officials said. In Basra in the south, dominated by the Shiites, and Mosul in the north, ruled by the Kurds, as well as cities and villages around them, many residents have said they are powerless before the growing sway of militias, which instill a climate of fear that many see as redolent to the era of former President Saddam Hussein.’”

[RWC] When your primary “news” sources are the AP and The Washington Post, you can predict the content. I don’t want sugarcoated coverage, but I also don’t want to hear only one side of a story.

“Forget the already-delayed artificial deadline for having a constitution. Major swaths of Iraq are spinning out of control, and the growing power of armed bands of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds poses a threat to Iraq’s already shaky future that no written document will be able to neutralize.”

[RWC] Aren’t most deadlines “artificial?”

“We’ve got a real mess on our hands in Iraq, and it is one that we created.”

[RWC] Yes, Iraq was a Middle East paradise before the war.

“The problem is that none of our options is good. We can cut and run and see Iraq descend into anarchy immediately. We can stay the Bush administration’s course and see Iraq descend into anarchy gradually. Or, we can increase U.S. military presence, including sending Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles that are now parked in the United States to Iraq, in an attempt to counter the insurgents and the militias.

“Only the last one offers any real hope of the mission in Iraq ever being accomplished.”

[RWC] I’m not a military expert, but how do you fight roadside bombs and suicide bombers with tanks and other armored vehicles? I believe Times calls to fight on are not sincere.