Iraqis “won independence” my rear.
They were gifted independence at great cost to US.
What’s more, they’ll squander it in a matter of months.
RE: What’s more, they’ll squander it in a matter of months.
Well, this article observe that :
* Violence has declined sharply since the peak in 2006/07 of the sectarian slaughter unleashed by the invasion, but a recent series of attacks has rung alarm bells.
* The animosity that led to carnage between majority Shi’ites and once dominant Sunnis has not healed, and a potentially explosive dispute between Arabs and Kurds has not been resolved.
* More than 1.5 million Iraqis are still displaced after being driven from their homes by violence. Many live in squalor.
* The recent elections which many hoped would heal sectarian rifts could instead, widen ethnic and sectarian rifts if the actual vote leader, ex-premier Iyad Allawi’s Sunni-backed cross-sectarian Iraqiya alliance, is excluded from power by the major Shi’ite-led political factions.
* Suspected Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda have tried to exploit the political vacuum and declining U.S. troop numbers with suicide bombings and assassinations ( that’s what you get for dealing your hand to the enemy ).
* Shi’ite Iran will seek to fill any vacuum left by the U.S. military, in competition with Sunni-led neighbours such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
In other words — IRAQ is still on a knife’s edge.
AGREE
AGREE
“What’s more, they’ll squander it in a matter of months.”
IIRC about 1 million were killed in their civil war post ‘liberation’, and my guess is that many more will follow. Iran is next door and are the Sunnis...er the Saudis.