Watched several commentators on Iraq last night. David Gergen has the right idea, I think. He calls the US plan “blame and run”. Here is my version of “blame and run”. It’s based as well on Bill Maher’s explanation of how men break up with women.
Let’s say the US (and its military) is “the boyfriend” and Iraq is the “long-suffering girlfriend”. The boyfriend really, really wants to dump his girlfriend, but he’s a bit of coward and can’t face doing this mean thing out in the open, so he decides to be a rotten boyfriend instead.
Being a rotten boyfriend will involve doing things like yesterday’s raid in Sadr City that killed 4 Iraqi civilians and wounded 18, and didn’t result in killing any terrorist target. That kind of thing upsets the girlfriend, so expect to see a lot more of it in the next 12 months.
In this way, in a year or so, the girlfriend will be so fed up she will yell at the boyfriend to pack his toothbrush and get the hell out. And then the boyfriend can say to the girlfriend’s family and friends (i.e. all the other nations on Planet Earth) “Look I tried to make it work, but she threw me out.” So he will walk away.
But, girlfriend won’t be alone for long, but because new boyfriend (let’s call him "Mahmoud") had essentially already moved in about 2 years earlier and was just waiting for that empty spot on the toothbrush holder. Ah, home at last.
4 comments:
have you thought of a career in diplomacy?
I had one already.
I quit when I realized it involved being "diplomatic". Not my thing. Big surprise.
surely you jest
No joke! My days in the diplomatic corps were before I met you. We're talking 20 years ago. That's why I lived in Washington D.C. for a couple of years.
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