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November 17, 2004

Damned If You Don't

One of the consistent arguments that I've had in my favor about the nature of this occupation and suppression of the rebellion is that the US has been fighting as cleanly as possible. What pacifists have exploited are the onesy twosies of Abu Ghraib and more recently the shooting of a combattant in a mosque. But what there has nver been is a humanitarian crisis of the sort wars generally produce. Iraq is not full of refugees living in squatter camps or running towards the borders. This has contributed to the force of the rebellion, and made it tougher for humanitarians to do their jobs.

Iraq is not a classic charity case, says Kenneth Bacon, a former Pentagon spokesman who heads Refugees International, a Washington advocate for those displaced by war or disaster. Unlike in Afghanistan (news - web sites), Bosnia, Haiti or other places the West has tried to help, in Iraq there's no starvation or widespread disease. There is no refugee crisis. Still, Iraq is broken on a large scale. Only big contractors and military engineers can fix the electrical grid, oil fields and water and sewer systems. Luring Western experts means six-figure salaries.

This is from an article which updates the whereabouts of O'sullivan of JumpStart International, who has decided to bug out.

So there are two notes to remember. One is the bad news that Sully is out of the picture. The other is the corrective news which you should keep in mind whenever you hear an American (flabby-butt bourgie) journalist exclaim how dangerous Iraq has been. It would be a lot less dangerous if we simply exterminated Iraqis and destroyed more of their infrastructure more indiscriminately.

Posted by mbowen at November 17, 2004 01:04 PM

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Comments

I thought the same issues existed in Afghanistan except the Americans don't stray too far from Kabul. The other interesting angle is that the Taliban is still in some control there (www.afghanistannews.net ) but we aren’t told that by Government.

In both countries there's mix of an active war zone and reconstruction projects in the same area so this should not be too surprising. Although one cannot exactly understand the situation from this distance, I suspect that the Iraqis do not see the reconstruction projects as benefiting them personally but benefiting their enemies and corrupt politicians.

Posted by: EG at November 17, 2004 02:49 PM