October 3, 2007

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

This is a really good discussion about what is actually going on in Iraq. Just this one sentence pretty well sums up the tenor of the article:
"With most Sunni factions now seeking a deal, the big questions in Iraq have been resolved positively. the country remains one, it has embraced democracy and avoided all-out civil war. What violence remains is largely local and criminal."


Here is another important point:
"The great question in deciding whether to keep fighting in Iraq is not about the morality and self-interest of supporting a struggling democracy that is also one of the most important countries in the world. The question is whether the war is winnable and whether we can help the winning of it. The answer is made much easier by the fact that three and a half years after the start of the insurgency, most of the big questions in Iraq have been resolved. Moreover, they have been resolved in ways that are mostly towards the positive end of the range of outcomes imagined at the start of the project. The country is whole. It has embraced the ballot box. It has created a fair and popular constitution. It has avoided all-out civil war. It has not been taken over by Iran. It has put an end to Kurdish and marsh Arab genocide, and anti-Shia apartheid. It has rejected mass revenge against the Sunnis."

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