From commentator 'euzoius', at The Left Coaster concerning the latest blame game coming from the Administration and other Politicians in Washington: \

Who we blamin' next, asks lil' Georgie? Saddam, Al Qaeda, and now those failed Iraqi peoples?. "To invade is human, to blame, divine". Or something. Iraq had a functioning society with operating institutions under Saddam. Not democratic, not open, not transparent, not civil rights respecting, but functioning. Iraqis could buy food, go to school, do the laundry, and travel to see their relatives, which often included Sunnis visiting shi'tes. We blithely destroyed those institutions, without the consent of the Iraqis. There was no order or security in Iraq from the day Bagdad fell. Chaos. Looting. Murder. "Stuff happens", remember? Without order, without institutions, fear of sectarian retribution and domination becomes very strong, as does the human desire to settle old scores. Iraqis aren't utterly blameless for their ongoing civil war and what it might turn into---each Iraqi has free will, they are independent human beings, who can decide not to kidnap, torture and kill their fellow Muslim co-citizens. If the Sunnis and Shi'a want to have a brutal fight over what sect will control their "country", that is indeed up to them. But we foolishly put them into the pot, heaped on the fuel and started the fire, acting like we were doing them a big favor. Who gets the lion's share of the blame for the resulting stew? I guess we'll chew on this little morsel of shit for the next 20 years, just like we did on the Vietnam debacle. Another little thing to divide our hopelessly divided country.

I recently had this same argument with my wingnut sister. 'euzoius' puts it into perspective much better than I. Sometimes you just have to say, "I wish I said that!"

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