I just heard Nancy Pelosi speak the other day. She was saying that America should not send in more troops because it's time the Iraqi government showed some responsibility and started getting their country under control. Personally, I'm not a big fan of increasing American troop presence in Iraq, but I do find her mini-lecture about the Iraqis showing some responsibility to be extremely condescending, and terribly unfair.
The situation strikes me as bordering on absurd, if it wasn't so grave to begin with. Here you have a case of someone going to a neighbour's house, totally wrecking the place, and then telling their now over-whelmed neighbours that it's time they shaped up and got a hold of the situation.
Yes, I admit that the government of Iraq is not innocent in all this. Prime Minister Maliki's cabinet is quite openly known to be propped up by Muqtada Sadr and his militia, and the factions among bureaucrats and politicians run as deep as among the people they represent.
But this latest rhetoric not only comes close to absolving the Bush administration and the previous elected representatives of a lot of accountability, but also allows the newly elected members of Congress and the House to wash their hands of the situation. It allows them to make a lot of noise about mending Iraq, without appearing be deeply associated with the chaos. It allows them to valiantly come to the rescue of Iraq, while at the same time casting much of the blame (and shame) for Iraq's deteriorating circumstances on the almost wholly disempowered Iraqi government.
2 comments:
erudite blog..
I agree, and have been fuming about this for a while... obviously I
should read your blog more often.
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