if only you negroes had oil
I guess there's no chance cut-and-run McCain helped inspire Osama?
In 1993, 18 U.S. soldiers, part of a contingent sent on a humanitarian mission to famine-struck Somalia, were murdered by street fighters in Mogadishu. Bin Laden later claimed that some of the Arab Afghans were involved. The main thing to bin Laden, howev er, was the horrified American reaction to the deaths. Within six months, the U.S. had withdrawn from Somalia. In interviews, bin Laden has said that his forces expected the Americans to be tough like the Soviets but instead found that they were "paper ti gers" who "after a few blows ran in defeat."[from Time]
Just to be clear, I'm not endorsing the invasions of Somalia and Haiti, just pointing out that Republican rhetoric about invasion, withdrawal and the rightness of those courses of action is bullshit.
h/t Wayne for forwarding.
Weird Result
I was against the war from the beginning. I quit my job the day we invaded, I didn't want my taxes to go to it. Had to get a job after a few years, but, hey.
So, knowing as I do that Haiti and Somalia are some of the most anarchic and messed up places on Earth, this story sure made me doubt the wisdom of withdrawal.
haiti, somalia, iraq
Hey Josh, thanks for commenting!
I've always been ambivalent about the 1995 US invasion of Haiti. Aristide had been illegally ousted and putting him back seemed a good use of US power. Bill Clinton was eager for the imprimatur of the Black Congressional Caucus (how time change, eh?) and was therefore susceptible to black moral pressure that made a "good" invasion seem possible. The UN was on board. Also, as a Haitian America, it felt a bit like Queens invading Brooklyn.
I had some of the same thoughts vis-a-vis Somalia, although, I have to confess I know less about that conflict.
I think the situation in Iraq is different. Unlike the invasion of Haiti (and Somalia and Bosnia for that matter), which involved a relatively small application of US power , Iraq was illegal, unsanctioned by the UN and largely pushed through domestically using propaganda and lies. (I know Haitians who view the invasion as part of a 300 year old conspiracy, but, the fact of the matter is that the main point of self-interest driving the US invasion was a desire to keep boat people to a minimum.)
There is a sermon some or another preacher gave once that war apologists use to explain their withdrawal thinking that sums up everything that's wrong with their POV: "A man lets himself into his neighbors house and breaks the dishes. Should he then run out and leave the broken dishes on the floor? No a moral should stay and clean up the mess."
I love that story, because it's a perfect example of how "common sense" is used by conservatives to obfuscate and distort. That story starts with a crime (breaking and entering) and ends with a cover-up (aka cleaning up the mess.) A moral person doesn't break into a neighbors house and a moral person doesn't destroy the evidence of their crime under the guise of "cleaning up." Let's say you wake up after some kind of sleep walking incident and find yourself in your neighbors house, the room wrecked and your neighbor dead at your feet. A moral person in that situation sits down quietly and waits for the police to come sort it out. That's Law and Order 101.
The US right now lacks the means and the moral authority to "fix" the mess it created in Iraq. All it can do at this point is engineer a reasonable withdrawal. The only thing that could make me willing to give "fixing" the invasion a shot would be if the engineers of the invasion in government were tried as war criminals and if its enablers in the media were all fired. Absent that, though, the only thing to do is leave.
Haiti, Somalia, Iraq
You are more than welcome!
Oh, as far as getting in goes, Haiti did seem like a good thing. A real horror show/snapshot of how it panned out is contained in Stan Goff's Hideous Dream.
After we left, though, it got bad.
And Somalia, whatever the reasons we went in (two warlords battling out, we took sides) after we left it really went to pot. Splintered into three or four countries (none internationally recognized), no official government. Blech.
I appreciate your criticism of the "clean it up" philosophy. I would argue, further, that America has different tools to accomplish different aims. The Armed Forces are great, best in the world, at smashing things up. They wouldn't have any problem destroying a country like America, if they put their minds to it.
You instantly guessed that they are _not_ the tool for fixing things up, whether or not we agree to do that.
I joke that if, instead of 150,000 troops (and some tens of thousands of armed contractors) there were 75,000 dentists and 75,000 street sweepers, there would be a lot less anger directed at the occupiers.
42% think attacking us is justified. 38% want us to go right away. That puts 4% of the Iraqi population in a position that I have a hard time putting into words.
Someone linked to you on Gawker, about McWhorter. I read that piece. Have a minimal connection, in that we both went (at different times) to Simon's Rock College.
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