Iraq Going, Going, Gone

Iraq Going, Going, Gone
Things are going great guns in Iraq. The military situation, the economy, the political process are all surging smartly. Not surprisingly, the Iraqis are giving notice that they have no further use for the United States of America.
In fact, they never did. They boast a 5,000 year-old civilization, well-watered land, endless oil and gas, and an educated and enterprising population. In other words, the nation did not require any building, but merely rehab after being wrecked by a grisly tyrant, twenty years of war, and a combo bombing and starvation campaign by the U.S.
If you recall, the original fantasy of the Bushies was to quickly conquer the devastated Iraq, install the oleaginous Chalabi as comprador in sheik, scarf up the oil, and use the place as a base to run the Middle East. The Iraqis would report to Greater Israel, Ltd., the regional branch manager for Empires Are US, Inc., of Washington and Wall Street. It was even anticipated that new subsidiaries would quickly be established in Damascus and Tehran.
But those monkeys did not fly out of anyone’s ass. Since the Crusades, the throngs in that particular corner of creation have upheld the bothersome creed that they should rule themselves rather than submit to infidels. Their modes of resistance tend to be idiocentric, drawn out and crazily complex. For instance, they have no problem with temporarily switching sides in the middle of a war if the inducements are sufficiently tempting. Able to multitask mayhems, they see little reason to suspend internal rivalries to unite against a common enemy. And, most vexing of all, they view defeat as no reason for submission. Something can always be arranged. In other words, once you make trouble for them, you’re in over your head even if you’re Gargantua.
Since the Bushies don’t know anything, they don’t know that. Instead, they’ve been refighting Vietnam while the Iraqis are busily proclaiming their divorce from unwanted wives Petraeus, Bush, Cheney and McCain.
You could see it coming. While the Bushies were advising the Iraqis to fear and loathe the Iranians the two were schmoozing on a red carpet of kissyface comity. Indeed it was revealed that Chalabi, the Pentagon’s substitute for Saddam, was in fact a Persian agent of influence. The Iraqis are also on friendly terms with their other neighbors
Getting Americans to understand politics of this sort is like expecting cats to herd mice. Anyway, our yahoos and militarists are all smiles because the surge is splendiferous, while the Iraqis are pleased because they now feel able to maneuver the Americans out the door.
It’s the perfect time for them to make their move. Bush is a lame duck and Obama is an unfledged hawk who prefers Pakistan for his predations. The empire is insolvent and its military exhausted. Successful surge or slick snow job, Americans have long lost their yen for offing generic ragheads and camel jockeys in payback for 9/11.
Those are not the only reasons why Iraq has its chance to break free of the empire, they’re also grounds to do so. What does this proud nation get out of bowing to America and Israel? Why should even the so-called pro-American elements in the Iraqi ruling class give away their nation’s oil to Exxon, Chevron, et. al., for chump change when they can own the whole thing? Why should they become another GI cat house like Okinawa? What can they get from the U.S. that they can’t get from the Europeans, Iranians, Chinese, Indians, Japanese, etc?
Anyway you look at it, the American empire is a loser. It has less and less to offer its clients. Indeed, instead of bossing them around, it is increasingly being manipulated and bought out by them.
Let the Pentagon play out its surge fantasies by paying the Sunnis millions a month not to attack us. Let McCain and company think they have the bad guys on the run. Sometime soon, the Iraqis will demand that we leave, lock, stock and barrel. Will we take their sovereignty seriously and pack up. This would mark us as losers just as Bush and McCain warn. Or would we stay against their will? That means open war against all of Iraq, not just its bad guys.
Zawahiri, number two to bin Laden, foretold this Hobson's choice back when the Iraq war began. The Americans are caught between two fires, he said. If they leave, they lose everything. If they stay, they bleed to death. With Obama and McCain, America has a choice between losers and bleeders.