The wrong way to do it
There is an must-read article over on ZNet called Iraq: What Went Wrong?, which takes a look at the many ways that the Bush administration has managed to totally screw up it’s Iraq adventure.
To conclude, imagine yourself an Iraqi. You’ve suffered terribly under a ruthless dictator. The Americans invade your country under false pretenses. They promise democracy but don’t organize elections. They appoint exiles to rule you, exiles who spend most of their time out of the country and the rest in a few highly protected areas. The occupiers break into your homes in the middle of the night and arrest your men, who then disappear, with no accountability. They shoot Iraqis at roadblocks and from convoys. They declare war on the second most popular man in the country, announcing his death in advance. They open the economy to US corporations and give them sweetheart contracts, ignoring local business. Then they write hundreds of laws and establish commissions limiting any future government. They build permanent military bases on your soil. Then they turn your country over to a former associate of Saddam Hussein, also a former CIA agent, known for his ruthless brutality. Imagine that was your country. What would you do?
There are plenty of references cited throughout the article, so this is more than just another opinion piece, and seeing all of these things gathered together in one place will really make you appreciate just how badly we’ve bungled this.
[via Atrios]