Wherever you stood on the leadup to the Iraq War, the only thing thing said by the Bush Administration then that's worth a shit now is this little ditty by Colon Powell:
"You break it you own it"
Well, break it they did and own it they do. Saddam Hussein was a tyrannical murderous bastard, of that you'll get no argument from anybody but he was also the Devil you knew. And a regional strongman and it turns out at least one of the ways you hold together the big burning bag of dogshit that is the Middle East is with an iron fist, or at least that's how he did it.
(Check the video here and share if you dare)
All of America's actions since the fall of Saddam Hussein and all available options going forward for probably the next hundred years fall somewhere on a scale between "Burning Bag of Dogshit" vs "Boots and Bucks", with Burning Bag of Dogshit being the fallback position.
Both ends of the scale are disastrous and unacceptable for the United States. There's a lot of reasons you can't just let the Middle East go to shit but a fairly easy one to grasp is that you just don't leave the Iraqi oil fields, a decent chunk of what's been des robed as the Greatest Material Prize in History to the guys cutting off heads. You don't leave Boardwalk and Park Place to the guys that are gonna burn Free Parking to the ground.
On the bucks side you're talking billions and you're talking continuous billions because the very second you stop paying out those billions it immediately reverts back to Burning Bag Of Dogshit. And nobody wants to pump money into a pit that keeps wanting more and it always reverts back to being a pit. Cuz that's what it is. It's a pit. Of dogshit. And it's on fire.
The latest news on the boots and bucks side is America has cobbled together yet another unfortunately named Coalition of the Willing, this time roping in, amongst other countries the UK, Australia and Canada. Did you know this? Do you care? Do you think it's gonna work? Your opinion matters, even if only to me so weight in, even if it's just to say you don't know.
This is @TheGentYYC reporting to you from the front lines of the War on Information, THANKS, and have a GREAT DAY.