I’m home. Thanks to everyone who expressed concern and kind thoughts. I don’t know if/when I’m going back, I’m feeling pretty crispy.
For the record, my opnions and experiences are only my own, but I have a fairly unique perspective on Iraq. I have travelled all over the country and spent time in just about every major city. I didn’t live in the green zone. I entered the country right after the war on a USMC convoy and have been evacuated twice. All told, I’ve spent about 8 months there, working with Iraqi counterparts.
I don’t think I ever said that civil war is inevitable, but I do think it is a strong possibility. If civil war is avoided, I believe it will be because of the will of the Iraqi people and not because of anything the US has done.
I believe that the chance of success (whatever that means) is extremely slim at this point, but that we have to try to succeed because the consequences of failure are going to be catastrophic for the US, Iraq and the world.
I also believe that success will hinge on getting the international community to see that stability in Iraq is in their interest and getting the IC to engage more in Iraq and that the Bush administration is incapable of getting that kind of cooperation.
Again, all of this is just one person’s experience and opinion, but I’ve seen more of Iraq than just a one block radius around the Sheraton in Baghdad, which is mostly what you see on the news.
Glad you’re back, madmonk, and glad you’re joining us here again also.
I’d like to ask for your thoughts about these cherry-picked but nevertheless disturbing Letters and emails from US soldiers: do they tally with your experience?
(Of course, Bush supporters will simply take one look at who the letters and emails are addressed to and ignore their content.)
Thanks SentientMeat. I can’t really comment on whether the letters reflect the attitude of most of the military, I didn’t spend enough time with our troops to say I know their attitudes.
I will say that I was very impressed with the military people I did meet. Right after the war, I interacted with the USMC a lot, they helped me find office space, identify local staff, etc., and they were just a squared away bunch of people. But I haven’t had much interaction in over a year.
There was an interesting article in today’s Wash. Post stating that Bremer felt that the US didn’t commit enough troops after the war resulting in a lawless environment that continues today. I absolutely agree, I just wish he had done something about it when he was in Baghdad.
Sure, my point in the previous post was that the Germans were predisposed to cooperate - the bombings, privations and ground war all took their toll. In Iraq we have .
A much better comparison point would be the troops:population ratio, which was IIRC ten to twenty times higher in Germany than in Iraq At the end of the war the US had 10 times the troops (~1.5 mill) in our occupation zone.