[Dean's World] Dave Price: Amnesty, Insanity, Hypocrisy and Hope in Iraq

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Posted by Dave Price:
Amnesty, Insanity, Hypocrisy and Hope in Iraq
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1151509692.shtml


   While Maliki clarifies that killers of Iraqis or coalition forces will
   not receive amnesty, three more Sunni insurgent groups [1]have
   indicated they will accept a truce, bringing the total to ten. This
   may not be the end of this war, but this is how wars generally end. It
   also doesnât hurt that the Samarra bombers were caught. Unfortunately,
   there are apparently others who are going to [2]fight any
   America-friendly government to the death:

     Al-Sabah newspaper reported Monday that seven insurgent groups
     supported the reconciliation plan and may be ready to announce a
     cease-fire. But Ahmad Essawi, of the Islamic Army of Iraq, said he
     spoke with 13 factions in the insurgency and "they were all
     astonished that there are resistance factions that want to
     negotiate."
     "None of them is negotiating, and will not negotiate, because we
     know they do not want to negotiate but to wipe us out," he said.
     "The departure of their last soldier is our goal; our policy is
     combat, and hard strikes against all forms of foreign presence on
     our land. So no negotiations."

   The tenacity and virulence of the violent pathology of parts of Iraqâs
   Sunni Arab society is still astonishing to Western sensibilities,
   amounting to a sort of mass psychological disturbance. It probably
   shouldnât surprise us, though: decades of authoritarian rule
   encouraging cruelty and rewarding ruthlessness was bound to have
   lingering effects, and these may continue for decades. It becomes more
   and more clear that ending the nightmare of Husseinâs rule was an act
   of great humanitarianism and mercy. The cost has been higher and the
   commitment longer than expected, but [3]sometimes a quagmire is the
   lesser of available evils.
   Christopher Hitchens, in a certainly futile [4]attempt to draft peace
   protestors into some useful cause, suggests that the human shields
   could make themselves available to protect Iraqis at hospitals and
   schools that are being targeted by insurgents, and perhaps express
   equivalent ire toward their IED land mines as they do toward the
   United States' version. Hitch is from the English version of the lefty
   mold of the good old days of FDR and JFK, when a larger proportion of
   leftists actually cared whether 2 million people were killed and
   another 25 million brutally enslaved by a ruthless tyrant, and might
   even consider a war to liberate them noble. Too many of today's
   leftists would rather liken democratic liberators to Nazis, an ironic
   insult to the deaths of 50 million at the hands of the very kind of
   regime whose right to continue to rule with oppression and murder they
   now inexplicably defend.
   Meanwhile, [5]Iraqi electricity production is back above prewar levels
   (p29). Iraqâs electrical generation is somewhat seasonal so
   same-month-prior-year comparisons are probably most useful in terms of
   measuring progress, and you can see from the graph that generation has
   exceeded that of the same month in the prior year for the past six
   months. Oil production has [6]risen to a record post-liberation level,
   while oil revenues greatly exceed prewar â and now the money has some
   chance of helping the Iraqis, and wonât be spent funding palaces,
   repression, and Husseinâs imperial ambitions. And the efforts to
   improve security in Baghdad are [7]gradually bearing fruit.
   The promise of a free and prosperous Iraq inches forward, slowly
   reclaiming ground long-held by tyranny and terror.

References

   1. http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2006/06/no-amnesty-for-killers-period.html
   2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/26/AR2006062601289.html
   3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5120574.stm
   4. http://www.slate.com/id/2144578
   5. http://www.brookings.edu/fp/saban/iraq/index.pdf
   6. file://localhost/var/www/powerblogs/deanesmay/posts/<br/>http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411319/765965<br/>
   7. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060628/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_060627192833;_ylt=A86.I1o4nqJEIYUAcQJX6GMA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl