Rewarding Failure

When it comes to the war in Iraq the main Republican talking point seems to be, "no one is interested in dwelling on the past we are where we are now so lets talk about what we do from here". This is a peculiar stand for a party that claims to model itself on the more efficient methods of private enterprise and prizes personal responsibility and accountability.

If you hired a CEO to run a business and the CEO failed miserably at meeting his stated goals, showed a complete lack of foresight and planning and had driven the company into the ground, would the board and the shareholders be OK when reviewing the CEO's performance with the CEO telling them "no one is interested in dwelling on the past we are where we are now so lets talk about what we do from here". Not likely.

As any good Republican businessman would tell you, the first order of business in getting that company back on track would be replacing the incompetent managers that were responsible for the current state of affairs. Ignoring a managers past performance and  track record would be suicidal for any enterprise. Personal responsibility and holding people accountable for their actions and performance is essential to success in business, government and life. That is supposedly essential to the Republican credo. So why not apply it to the war on Terror and the Republican leadership?

The decision to invade Iraq had consequences and not just in American lives and treasure. It changed the balance of power in the region.

Sunni fundamentalists like Al Queda and Shiite fundamentalist backed by Iran were threats to Sadam's dictatorial power and he brutally suppressed them. A Sunni dominated Iraq served as a check on Iranian and Shiite power in the region. Broken from 2 wars and years of embargo Sadam was a threat to no one but his own people. The Iranian Ayatollahs in the meantime were under siege by their own people who had elected a government promising reform. Moderates Muslims had emerged all over the Mideast after 9/11 to condemn extremism and advocate for democracy.

So what impact did the decision to invade Iraq and the subsequent bumbling incompetence in the post war occupation have on this picture? It opened Iraq to Al Queda and enabled the creation of an Al Queda in Iraq. Even more dangerous then Al Queda it empowered Shiite fundamentalism acrooss the middle east enabling the creation of a crescent of Radical Shiite power from Hezbollah in Lebanon through Iraq and the the northern oil producing regions of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to Iran. This movement is much more dangerous then Al Queda because unlike Al Queda it is not a rag tag collection of small stateless terrorist cells it is a real mass movement with deep roots in every Shiite village and city. It is capable not just of terrorist acts like blowing up buildings but as a mass popular movement it can project it's power on a national and regional scale. Hezbollah was the first Arab military force to face down the Israeli army and live to boast about it.

The surge has managed to reduce the level of violence at the cost of American lives but it has had zero impact on the political consequences of the invasion. Iranian allied Shiite groups now run the government of Iraq and the surge is dependent on Sunni's warlords and tribal leaders who not to long ago where killing Americans and are now using the US just as they used Al Queda before in a marriage of convenience. McCain talking about Al Queda conquering Iraq and the chance of a few thousand Al Queda terrorists many of them foreigners defeating the native Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish militias on their home turf is just more of the babbling absurdity, dishonesty and complete disconnect from reality in Republican discourse on the war.

The war has emboldened the extremists and destroyed the credibility of moderate voices. The complete destruction of infrastructure and civil society in Iraq has unleashed the genies of sectarianism and tribalism across the region and plunged Iraq into a civil war. It also drained the forces needed to complete the mission in Afghanistan where Bush has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. We now must deal with an resurgent Taliban and Al Queda in the Afghanistan/Pakistan theater.

This is only a partial litany of the biggest foreign policy disaster in American history. Yet incredibly having caused this fiasco Republicans expect to be able to say let's not look back on 5 years of disastrous screw ups, let's entrust the incompetents that created the mess with getting us out of it. Because you should not take in to account a leaders track record and past performance when considering whether you should entrust them with continued responsibilities. Unbelievable. Can they really get away with this crap? Is it possible that anyone could listen to this without seeing the absurdity of it?