It will end in disaster - A mess that will last for years (The Guardian Pays a Visit to Earth B)

The Guardian ^ | April 1, 2003 | George Monbiot

[Timesink]

Have you heard about the lonesome loser
Beaten by the queen of hearts every time
Have you heard about the lonesome loser
He's a loser, but he still keeps on tryin'!

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

I wonder what this nitwit said about Afghanistan?

[arthurus]

: that, however this conflict is resolved, the outcome will be a disaster.

This is probably right. There is in this the makigs of a political disaster for the left in England and in America.

[dighton]

Monbiot, meet Buchanan.

[Political Junkie Too]

A mess that will last for years

As opposed to the mess that would flare up instantly in one nuclear blast?

-PJ

[Desecrated]

"I hope I've missed something here, and will be proved spectacularly wrong."

Yes, you have, and no, you don't. In fact nothing would suit you better than to have your socialist idol Saddam defeat the evil capitalists, right?

[Davea]

"This is probably right. There is in this the makigs of a political disaster for the left in England and in America."

Bingo! This will be a disaster for the left and they know it. One of the many blessings that will come out of this war.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

The first is that, elated by its reception in Baghdad, the American government decides, as Donald Rumsfeld hinted again last week, to visit its perpetual war upon another nation: Syria, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, North Korea or anywhere else...

He says this like it's a bad thing.

Monbiot---isn't that Pig Latin for idiot?

[Argus]

Iraq the United Kingdom is a colonial artefact, forced together by the British Anglo-Normans from three Ottoman provinces England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, whose people have wildly different religious and ethnic loyalties. It is arguable that this absurd construction can be sustained only by brute force.

[tet68]

The coalition might also soon discover why Saddam Hussein became such an abhorrent dictator. Iraq is a colonial artefact, forced together by the British from three Ottoman provinces, whose people have wildly different religious and ethnic loyalties. It is arguable that this absurd construction can be sustained only by brute force.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Saddam really wasn't so bad, Iraq made him that way!

Jeeeesch!

[tet68]

Monbiot, Monbiot, What kind of name is that? French?

[FredZarguna]

Saddam Hussein, whose psychological warfare appears to be rather more advanced than that of the Americans,

Translation from newspeak to English: "Saddam Hussein, whose lies were rather more convincing to delusional people than the Americans' truths."

[Ole Okie]

Bingo! This will be a disaster for the left and they know it. One of the many blessings that will come out of this war.

Tiny Tom D'Asshole is deeply troubled. And saddened. Deeply saddened.

Teensy Tom is deeply, deeply troubled and saddened.

[sd-joe]

"They have unlocked the spirit of war"

Like, the spirit of war has not existed or has been locked up, contained, somehow until now. In that case, what was 911, a lovefest? What were all the other attacks on the US, the Cole, the original WTC?

What have been all the declarations of death and destruction to America from Islam cleric after Islam cleric?

It must be convenient to put together an attempt at logical thought, by ignoring all that has gone on before. This guy has got to be a professor or somebody else who has lost the ability to think.

[Jhensy]

It has been fascinating to watch the utter stupidity of the left during this whole Iraq saga.

[the Deejay]

Monbiot. Another doom and gloomer with a crystal ball no doubt.

[Jhoffa_]

..that the choice of regimes in the Middle East is not a choice between secular dictatorship and secular democracy, but between secular dictatorship and Islamic democracy. What the people of the Middle East want and what the US government says they want appear to be rather different things..

If this thing turns into a tarbaby, this will be the reason.

The only thing that's not certain in the whole conflict. How much influence will radical Islam have in post-war Iraq?

We're trying to inoculate against it, but eventually people in a Democracy either wind up with the Government they want or the Government they deserve.

[Jhensy]

The US will almost certainly then have engineered the improbable chimera it claims to be chasing: the marriage of Saddam's well-armed secular brutality and al-Qaida's global insurrection. Even if, having held out for many weeks or months, Saddam Hussein is found and killed, his spirit may continue to inspire a revolt throughout the Muslim world, against the Americans, the British and, of course, Israel. Pakistan's unpopular leader, Pervez Musharraf, would then find himself in serious trouble. If, as seems likely in these circumstances, he is overthrown in an Islamic revolt, then a fundamentalist regime, deeply hostile to the west, would possess real nuclear weapons, primed and ready to fire.

I hope I've missed something here, and will be proved spectacularly wrong, but it seems to me that the American and British governments have dragged us into a mess from which we might not emerge for many years. They have unlocked the spirit of war, and it could be unwilling to return to its casket until it has traversed the world.

Hard-hitting piece there, H.L. Schmenken.

[Verginius Rufus]

The British created Iraq in 1921. Saddam became President of Iraq in 1979. How many civil wars did the Iraqi Kurds, Sunni Arabs, and Shi'ite Arabs fight among themselves between 1921 and 1979?

[appalachian_dweller]

>> They have unlocked the spirit of war <<

Hey monbiot (you a-hole), the spirit of war was unlocked on 9-11-01. We're just finishing what they started. Why don't you pull your head out of your @$$!!!