Making Sense Of It All

Sometimes readers send me story tips by email. Thanks to all of you who do. Even if the story doesn't make it to Newshog intact I do read it and it will eventually surface just when you least expect it. Sometimes, though, I get commentary by email too. Today, I want to share with you a mail from my friend Kat. It really cuts to the heart of the jaw-dropping "I can't believe they planned this" reaction so many have to the Bush administration's many mistakes.

Iraq unemployment barrier to stability -- Up to 50 percent are reported jobless

I am so naive! When U.S. troops first rolled into Baghdad, I thought it was obvious that the U.S. government should - and would - immediately do two things to "win friends and influence people". In addition to what they brought for their own use, they should have brought a large amount of medical supplies with them to stock Iraqi hospitals and clinics, which would easily have garnered them a huge load of goodwill. And they should have spent a chuck of American taxpayer dollars for as many "public works projects" as necessary to employee the vast majority of Iraqis, to not only give them an income to feed their families, thus generating another load of goodwill, but also to give them a big stake in a peaceful transition to a post-Saddam Iraq, and to keep them busy doing something useful so they wouldn't have the time, energy, or inclination to foment an insurgency.

This made so much sense to me, that I was absolutely mortified when, not having received any orders otherwise, our troops allowed Iraqi hospitals to be looted to the bare walls and then burned or otherwise destroyed. And with regard to the museum being looted, why didn't U.S. leaders consider how Americans would feel and react in the event that foreign troops rolled into Washington, D. C., and allowed the Smithsonian to be completely destroyed? Our actions - and inactions - during our first couple of weeks there surely horrified every hopeful Iraqi too.

Even if we didn't give a damn about the Iraqis themselves - as is now acutely obvious - my naive scenario should have struck U.S. leaders as simple enlightened self-interest. They could have required any unemployed bi-lingual Iraqis to teach U.S. troops some basic Iraqi language skills -- for the troops' sake, and ultimately for the mission's sake. Even if they were planning to reserve major infrastucture contracts for Halliburton and their other multinational pals, they could have paid every unemployed Iraqi male from age 16 to 35 a minimum wage to clean up, by hand, all the rubble from the bombings - just to occupy them, tire them out, help them feed their families, and prevent them from making the trouble which typically ensues from being hungry, idle, and powerless. As soon as they were in Baghdad, they could have contacted "doctors without borders" to request they immediately send as many doctors, medics, nurses, pharmaceuticals, equipment, etc. as possible -- with U.S. funding -- and could then have made a big announcement about it to all Iraqis, saying priority at hospitals and clinics would be given to children under the age of 16. Wow -- what a PR coup that would have been. Even with less than sterling motives for all this, enlightened self-interest should have told them that spending money for these kinds of things in the beginning would save the U.S. far more than it cost in the long run.

I'm still trying to decide if Bush and company are just, to a one, bloody IDIOTS, or if ARROGANT IDIOTS would be a more accurate term for them. In favor of the former, I can't figure out how they would benefit from demolishing the U.S.'s armed services, or ruining the U.S. economy -- which arguably will also lead, in short order, to the crash of the global economy. In which case this whole fiasco is just another example of how greed makes people blind to the logical consequences of their actions. In favor of the latter view of them, they obviously have no interest in catching Osama, they are completely lacking in morals with regard to the Geneva Conventions, torture, and the human rights of prisoners, their self-touted concern for the spread of democracy is completely negated by their friendly relations with abusive dictators in other countries such as Uzbekistan, and their Homeland Security department is a joke that amounts to nothing more than another way to funnel large amounts of the taxpayers' money to their buddies.

If you can make sense of all this, I'd like to read about it at Newshog.

Kat, I tend towards the "greed and incompetence" view but I can't pretend I can make sense of some of the Bush governments actions even by that light. Some look deliberately stupid. To make sense of it all is the work of generations of history and thousands of books. I can just try to throw a little opinion at individual matters as they arise. Sorry.