Iran to Out Wait the US on Iraq Involvment
Iraq appears to have made its decision. Unfortunately it's not the decision U.S. leaders wanted Iraqis to make when we freed them from the cruel grasp of a brutal dictator and promised them the freedom of democracy. Having engineered elections and a supposedly democratic government, the Iraqis -- or at least their leaders -- are speaking, but is Washington listening?
Iraq is making choices and they're not choosing the U.S. How can they when Iran is dangling the key to the executive men's room in front of their nose? Like the nerdy accountant who suddenly finds himself sharing cigars in the boss' inner sanctum, Iraq won't be able to resist Iran's invitation to join the Boys' Club. Unfortunately Iraq fails to see the puppet strings that come with the invitation. Iraq is doomed, to become just another squashed dream crushed by the rise of a new Persian Empire.
So what is the U.S. to do? Realistically, nothing. It doesn't matter that we had planned to build Iraq into a bastion of pro-western democratic freedom to hedge our bets and protect our oil supply in the Middle East. As any fool can see, it ain't gonna happen. In today's volatile Middle East, pro-American sentiment is tantamount to lighting the fuse on the bomb in your pocket -- political suicide.
Having given Iraq the tools to make its own choices, the U.S. can only step back and watch as history unfolds. That is the basic tenet of democracy after all -- the freedom to choose one's own destiny.
By recreating Iraq as a democracy with the freedom to make its own choices, the U.S. must now sit back and watch in frustration as Iraq chooses to bite the hand that fed it. To do anything less is to admit that Iraqi democracy was no more than a sham. Time to pass the puppet strings; Iran is waiting in the wings.
Iraq is making choices and they're not choosing the U.S. How can they when Iran is dangling the key to the executive men's room in front of their nose? Like the nerdy accountant who suddenly finds himself sharing cigars in the boss' inner sanctum, Iraq won't be able to resist Iran's invitation to join the Boys' Club. Unfortunately Iraq fails to see the puppet strings that come with the invitation. Iraq is doomed, to become just another squashed dream crushed by the rise of a new Persian Empire.
So what is the U.S. to do? Realistically, nothing. It doesn't matter that we had planned to build Iraq into a bastion of pro-western democratic freedom to hedge our bets and protect our oil supply in the Middle East. As any fool can see, it ain't gonna happen. In today's volatile Middle East, pro-American sentiment is tantamount to lighting the fuse on the bomb in your pocket -- political suicide.
Having given Iraq the tools to make its own choices, the U.S. can only step back and watch as history unfolds. That is the basic tenet of democracy after all -- the freedom to choose one's own destiny.
By recreating Iraq as a democracy with the freedom to make its own choices, the U.S. must now sit back and watch in frustration as Iraq chooses to bite the hand that fed it. To do anything less is to admit that Iraqi democracy was no more than a sham. Time to pass the puppet strings; Iran is waiting in the wings.
