Questions For The Iraq Study Group

by tristero

Dear Iraq Study Group,

How many of you folks speak Arabic? I count three, maybe four based on your names. Let's be generous and say ten members are fluent in Arabic.

As for the rest of you, easily the majority, that don't speak Arabic, how the fuck do you think you can contribute any truly substantive expertise about the situation in Iraq to the study group? Sure, some people need to be expert on things that don't necessarily require Arabic language skills. But most of you? What kinda sense is that? Y'think you have expertise 'cause you recently skimmed a summary of al Jazeera broadcasts? That's like thinking you can advise on heart surgery 'cause you watched Marcus Welby a lot when you were a kid.

Just asking.

Love,


tristero

h/t Glenn Greenwald who, in a typically brilliant post writes:
Back in 2002, when the U.S. was debating whether to invade Iraq, those who opposed the invasion were, for that reason alone, dismissed as unserious morons and demonized as anti-American subversive hippies. Despite the fact that subsequent events have largely proven them to have been right, and that those who did the demonizing were the frivolous, unserious, know-nothing extremists, this narrative persists, so that -- even now, when most Americans have turned against this war -- the only way to avoid being an "extremist," and to be rewarded with the "centrist" mantle, is to support the continuation of this war in one form or another.

A desire to keep troops in Iraq even in the face of what is going on there may be many things, but "centrist" is not really one of them. Any Commission which commits itself in advance to keeping American troops fighting in Iraq for the foreseeable, indefinite future is itself "extremist" -- whether that term is seen as a function of public opinion or assessed on its own merits.