Blue Thumbs

*by Steve Culley*

Saddam Hussein was a scum bag dictator and having him depart this earth was a good thing. Of course some things happened when he did. Iraq, a creation of imperialism ceased to exist except on a map and in the minds of George Bush and other ill informed people. An artificial nation of warring factions lost the glue that held it together. Right after we invaded it might have been possible to create some kind of federation among Sunnis, Shia and Kurds but that opportunity was squandered. I hate to say it but the natural order of things, the separation of those factions will happen. Iraq is dead, thrown on the garbage dump of history. The natural order of things there will sort themselves out.

The process is called civil war. There is not a dammed thing we can do about it. The only thing left is a Viet Nam rerun. Presidential speech writers are smart enough not to let George Bush use terms like “a light at the end of the tunnel” or “winning hearts and minds” but they are stuck in the same Viet Nam rut. The only thing left, although it won’t be phrased in Viet Nam era lingo is “peace with honor” and declaring victory and leaving. That’s the last step before withdrawal.

Iraqi prime minister Nouri al Maliki opened the gate to that Saturday when he said , “We say in full confidence we are able, God willing, to take the responsibility completely in running the security file if the international forces withdraw at any time they want”.

There were elections in Iraq and the Bush administration made a lot of hay with those photos of voter blue thumbs showing their new democracy. I say put it to the test. Let’s push hard for a cease fire among those people who like to slaughter each other so as to have a “national” referendum in Iraq with just one question. “Should the Americans and coalition forces stay or depart from Iraq?”

Right after that the Television news could show lots of Americans waving back at a lot of Iraqis waving blue thumbs as we get on the boats and airplanes. Then they can get down the business of either settling their differences, by ballot or bullet. The choice would be theirs. Then we could redeploy our forces to our borders where the security of our nation is truly at risk.