Iraq Madness

A hardcore account of the fighting happening in Western Iraq. I heard on NPR today that there are an average of 70 attacks a day by insurgents, double from last month. I've noticed the blogosphere is rather quiet in respect to this development (perhaps because the MSM is covering it in abundance, but also perhaps because it doesn't line up with the general pro-Iraq, pro-Admin position that the blogosphere tends to take versus the MSM, which tended to favor a less pro-war stance)

I've always maintained that the main trouble makers in Iraq are the foreign fighters, Al Queda vs. Baathists from Syria and the old regime. The above article seems to concur with the sentiment - the title "They Come Here to Die." These guys were fighting are hardcore - the article talks about ambushing Marines, using armor piecing weaponry (expensive) and holing up in clever hiding positions, and fighting to die, while taking as many American (and innocent Iraqis) as possible with them. Dangerous muthas. Marines characterized the house, after they finally destroyed it with tank back up, as pure evil. It's odd for us to think about things like that, but I don't think the Marine who described it that way is some moralizing southern preacher pointing to evil everywhere in the world. And that makes this discovery even more scary.

I see three options for Iraq (and how the world deals with Iraq)

1. Let Saddam rule with a gangster regime. Upside: Stability. Downside: Beyond the horror of living with a totalitarian state, where people are subject to arbitrary justice, torture, and mass murder - the psychological impact across generations of people living in fear, without freedom, without agency, creating scarred humans, incapable of realizing their human potential.

2. Chaos. Upside: Costs us no money, we aren't in the position of supporting a terror regime. Downside: Chaos, terror, torture, horror, hell on earth

3. US Supported Government. Upside: Best hope for decent future. Downside: Costs us a lot of money, lives, causes resentment, imperialist designs, US perceived as creator of problems.

What other options are there? If I were an Iraqi and didn't trust the US - felt like we were really only after the oil and to steal from the country, I STILL think I would support a US supported democratic Iraqi government in favor of the alternatives.