Notes on The Big Dumb
Of all the heinous stupidity of the Bush administration, none has caused such breathtaking loss of life as our causing the Iraqi Civil War. For the sake of some modicum of balance, here's the embarrassingly lame editorial by the Chicago Tribune's Frank James, in which he calls for a "civil-war blue ribbon panel" (yes, he actually uses that phrase) to decide whether Iraq is in a civil war. It reminds me of those Royal Bank of Scotland commercials, in which the bankers debate how to rescue one of their fellows who is trapped in quicksand, even as the man slowly sinks beneath the gritty swamp. The only people who argue against this being a civil war who have a valid point are those that argue it's even worse -- complete anarchy, the total break from any recognizable social order.
Last Sunday, we passed a little-noticed milestone in Iraq. We have now been involved in the Iraq War longer than we were involved in World War II.
Meanwhile, in the greater War on Terror, the U.S. is doing a bang-up job -- at least when it comes to PR, which seems to be the real central front in the War on Terror.
While some of my media colleagues have only just acquiesced to calling the Iraq War a civil war, others have already gone much further, at least in terms of our culpability. This editorial by Catholic priest Andrew Greeley in the Sun-Times is worth reading. Highlights:
In regards to U.S. soldiers: "President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney killed them."
In summation: "It's a shame there will be no war crimes trials."
Of course, it's IEDs and snipers that killed our troops, but I see his point.