The White House needs to remember something we were taught as kids: Clean up that mess you made before you go anywhere else!
All the effort being extended to surge into Iraq and clean up the non-existent civil war are, not surprisingly, aimed in the wrong direction. The Iraqis don't want soldiers living in their slums. They want the power on, sewers working, potable water ... all those "little things" which would make the slum part of their towns go away.
There is something called "Broken Window Syndrome" here in the USA. What it says is when one window on one building is broken, another window will soon be broken. And the more broken windows there are, the more new ones will be broken. In other words, people will follow the example -- particularly when it seems clear that nobody actually gives a snit.
If anyone had to live in the conditions the United States and allies have forced upon the majority of Iraqis, they'd be pixxed off -- including people like you. As far as most of us are concerned, no one has the right to take away our utilities if we've been paying for them as we're supposed to.
Every human being has the innate right to fresh drinking water, a way to light the dark, a way to keep the cold or heat at bay, access to enough food to stop starvation. There are people, in what used to be the civilized part of Iraq, who have lost those basic survival items they grew up with. It's not just various refugee camps in Africa and Asia where people are living in abominable conditions, wondering if they will be able to eat or drink safely.
If the only problems in the cities and towns of Iraq were lack of television and closed schools, we could probably justify pulling out and letting them take care of the rest. And if those were all the problems they faced, it is unlikely they would be sitting and hating
. . . hating being without,
. . . hating feeling helpless,
. . . hating their neighbors because they are different or have more or want more or simply are aware of the conditions we have to put up with.
It is long past time to fire the contractors who have been sucking in the money while making things generally worse. It's time to suction off some of the funds they've collected along the way, and use that money to put people on the ground who can do the little things -- like repair generators, fix boilers, string power lines, run phone cables, repair sewers and sewer plants, repair water lines and reconnect the sources of safe water. And if, on the way out of the country, we could provide decent paved roads which the sand won't destroy for a few more years ...
Stop and think about it. I'm over 60 years old and I'd be out there taking pot shots at any invader who destroyed my life and living conditions as badly as the USA has done in Iraq. Even if Sadam had those elusive WMDs, the people of Iraq didn't. Yet the people of Iraq are in far worse shape than the war criminals kept in various sites. It is considered unethical to keep a prisoner in the dark, deny food, deny water, isolate them. So why isn't what we've done to the average resident of Iraq considered even more unethical?
Think about it for a second or two. And then consider throwing open your political window and screaming something about "I'm mad as hell, and they shouldn't have to put up with this any more!!"
