"Compassionate Conservativism" morphs seamlessly into "Compassionate Colonialism". Michael Hisrsh at Newsweek frames the story perfectly, pretends to be outraged, and pretends to give a shit. Come on, you left-wing dogs - lap it up!!!
What's clear to me after two weeks here is that despite some success at handing off matters to the Iraqis, progress is so frustratingly slow that we Americans may never be able to leave. The new Iraq is growing up around our presence and is as dependent as a child...Wipe your mouth and get out another barf bag for the sign-off:
On the ground here, you can feel this society fissuring every day, as you watch the Americans desperately try to paper over the cracks. And what the American people need to understand is that there is really only one dominant cohering force left in the country: the American presence...
The logical conclusion is that Iraq may no longer be able to exist, as Iraq, without the glue of American involvement —in politics, in security, in Iraq's very sense of national identity...
So perhaps this isn't going to be a model of democracy after all. Instead it's more likely to be—if it works out—a model for post-colonial imperialism. It's a new kind of colonialism, in other words, one that dare not speak its name. But let's give it one anyway: "compassionate colonialism."
And oil, while it was not the reason for this latest war (or perhaps only a small part of the reason), may end up being the reason we too decide to stay and force Iraq to remain Iraq. That's OK with me, I guess, as long as it's OK with Spc. Lucero and Staff Sgt. Diaz and the others who are putting their lives on the line for this cause.Bastard. Bastard. Bastard.
