Sunday, August 14, 2005

talk about moving the goal post

the washington post has an article about how the u.s. government is "lowering its sights on what can be achieved in Iraq." one anonymous u.s. official is quoted as saying:
We set out to establish a democracy, but we're slowly realizing we will have some form of Islamic republic. That process is being repeated all over.
the liberal avenger views the article as a good sign--it means the administration is finally waking up to the reality of iraq and may actually result in u.s. troops returning home sooner. maybe he's right, but i had a completely different reaction.

to me, it seemed like the punchline of a sick joke. i mean, if our goal was to set up an islamic republic in iraq, wouldn't it have been a lot easier to have just let iran win the iran-iraq war? is the bush administration really willing to tell the families of dead soldiers that their loss was worth it for the worthy goal of spreading islamic republicanism throughout the muslim world? will the right wing bloggers point to every islamic revolution in the region and attribute it to george bush's "tsunami of islamic republicanism"? and how exactly does the bush administration perform its next feat of rhetorical gymnastics: go from condemning the "moolahs of iran" to cheering the spread of their system of government?