I keep coming back to the comments attributed to Bush in the Dallas Morning News.
(Bush) . . . made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of "our country's destiny."
I've tended, in debating Iraq, to assert that we were lead to war by a bunch of boobs. I've made the assumption that the tragic mess in Iraq is the result of administration-wide incompetence.
But then this was reported by the New York Times:
U.S. Arming Sunnis in Iraq
Please follow me over the break as I put this together.
Critics, as the article points out, say:
. . . it could amount to the Americans’ arming both sides in a future civil war. The United States has spent more than $15 billion in building up Iraq’s army and police force, whose manpower of 350,000 is heavily Shiite. With an American troop drawdown increasingly likely in the next year, and little sign of a political accommodation between Shiite and Sunni politicians in Baghdad, the critics say, there is a risk that any weapons given to Sunni groups will eventually be used against Shiites. There is also the possibility the weapons could be used against the Americans themselves.
And this isn't the first time we've "armed" both sides of the Iraqi conflict. As Al Franken says, "Paul Bremer told the Iraqi Army, You're fired, get out of here, we're not going to pay you, and take your weapons with you." Thus sending a half million angry, unemployed young men (both Sunni and Shiite) into the arms of insurgency with their weapons intact.
And, of course, one of the greatest examples of "incompetence" was this:
Iraqi officials reported that thieves looted 377 tons of powerful explosives from an unguarded site after the US-led invasion last year, the top UN nuclear official said yesterday. And a former weapons inspector said he had counted about 100 other unguarded weapons sites that may have been stripped of munitions for use in the wave of attacks against US soldiers and Iraqi civilians.
Another instance where both sides acquired weapons due to the "incompetence" of the US.
But what if this hasn't all been bungling? What if the Bush administratoin wanted 500,000 armed and angry young men running around the country? What if the weapon caches were intentionally left unguarded? What if this new seemingly idiotic plan to arm Sunnis is being done simply because the Shiites were actually making headway? What if the plan all along was to create a chaotic shoot 'em up stalemate in Iraq?
As long as they're shooting at each other -- and us -- Bush can claim we need to stay in Iraq. As long as they're shooting at each other the Halliburtons get to keep making their billions. As long as they're shooting at each other Big Oil gets to have the US military protecting its oil. As long as they're shooting at each other Bush gets to point fingers at other nations (e.g., Iran, Syria) with the clear intent to go after them next.
I'm beginning to think the "incompetence" is a ruse and what's happening in Iraq is exactly what they've wanted all along.