Our Last Hurrah?

Is Maliki America’s Last Hope In Iraq?



We are way past the point where American military and/or political clout are going to change the dynamics in present day Iraq. That much is clear. Whether we open our eyes to it or not.



The current climate indicates that we are quickly running out of options.



Our leaders are running around like chickens with their heads cut off echoing words that have little or no relationship to what we can see with our eyes or read in the many accounts of the war on the ground...



At this time, we seem to be investing Maliki with all of our hopes and expectations meanwhile wondering if he is really an Ahmed Chalabi in disguise.



Only there is one problem.



He is not up to the task. That much is clear.

Or maybe the task needed to be rethought.

At the very least, our leadership hoped that he would begin the process.

But the problems run deep in this troubled land.

And, what is more troubling, Maliki seems unable to find a way to encourage all sides to the table to even begin the process of laying the groundwork for peace.



In this, he has proved to be another lightweight who is in over his head and not the solution that the Iraqi people were hoping and praying for.



Of course, it doesn’t help that he has already been denigrated as a pawn of George Bush or the henchman of Moktada Al Sadr—it’s hard to say which is worse if you are a Sunni…



The current view seems to be that we have nothing up our sleeve that will move the Iraqis one step closer to peace and democracy or at the very least end the bloodshed that has characterized the last three years…No matter what name we put on it, it is looking more and more like a pattern of genocide much like what happened in the Congo....



This raises the very legitimate issue if we have nothing to offer, why are we staying? Certainly, then, all we are accomplishing is adding to the numbers of dead and wounded while we bleed our treasury dry…



Despite our unrealistic government, it is hoped that our military leadership will point out that we have embarked on a no win mission while others clamor for more troops.....



It is this writer’s view that the answer was never more troops but more understanding and more vision. We’ve already failed on that score the day we set out on this suicidal mission based on lies and blatant ignorance.



In the end, of course, it’s those who have least to gain who pay the awful price. Our intransigence doesn’t offer much solace to the poor and Middle Class who bear the burden of responsibility while the rich, their hands full of dollars, sail off to the malls

In their expensive gas guzzlers practicing denial….



Ironically and paradoxically, the cycle of violence continues with the Middle Eastern’s Jihad against the west underwritten by petrol dollars that our privileged class is pleased to provide.



If ever there was a time for the generals to stand up, it is now!...

And the stench is growing!





Les Aaron



The Committee for Positive Change