News What Cautionary Tale Reflects the President's Path in Iraq?

[Loren Booda]

What tale best depicts starting a war that justifies only its own vindication?

 

[scott1]

I'll just put in the Emporers colth's...I liked how that one ended

 

[BobG]

Sorcerers Apprentice

 

[russ_watters]

Could you reword the question...?

 

[Loren Booda]

Thanks, Russ, I did have difficulty with this one.

The war in Iraq seems a self-fulfilling prophesy. By embroiling the United States there, somewhat like Vietnam, and making our goal the eradication of terrorism where it was not primarily, our president gives no recourse but to stay the course and stomp out spontaneous fires (a la Sorcerer's Apprentice). In whatever unstable region we unleash our forces, we are seen no longer as leader of the free world, but oppressor of the native fundamentalists - playing right into the hands of terrorists. We need not fight them so much at home, but respect almost all established governments as potential allies against terror. If we had never fomented war in Iraq, for whatever questionable reason, we could have a relatively flexible foreign policy with them. The Iraqis could have usurped Saddam with fewer deaths than the current war will take. Kurds, Shiites and Sunis might each have their own state. As it stands, we either lose many of our own trying to control a civil war, or turn tail and let Iraq burn. War is a game with fewer options than diplomacy. By Bush's bungling - not in Afghanistan, but in Iraq - American pride forces us to stay the course with a ill-founded beginning, for whatever of many rationalizations (e. g., fascism).

So: What cautionary tale best embodies the course our president has set in Iraq?

 

[arildno]

So: What cautionary tale best embodies the course our president has set in Iraq?

I'm reminded of a tale about some country stomping into Somalia and making a mess out of the whole situation there.

Can't remember who wrote that story, though..