Blessings to be found in Waterloo and Iraq

Picture courtesy of
Make Them Accountable

David Podin finds some blessings in our invasion of Iraq and our eventual defeat.

The American conquest of Iraq has become an ever-worsening nightmare for the occupying force. Soon, even the corporate media’s master fabulists will be unable to misrepresent the failure as being a success. Although there is much drama yet to occur, the final chapter of this immorality play was written well before it began. In the end, our empire will have suffered a humiliating defeat, and viewed from the patriotic perspective that will be a very good thing.

While it is tragic that many more American soldiers will die in vain, courtesy of George W. Bush, the future would be infinitely worse had the war gone according to plan. If the United States military had successfully pacified the Iraqis, thereby facilitating an occupation that was relatively easy for America, Iraq would have been just the first domino to fall. Iran would have toppled next, and then Kazakhstan, and then anywhere else Islam and petroleum intersect to provide the pretext for corporate plunder.

That Iraq has become a quagmire should be viewed as a painful yet welcome development by those Americans who do not want our country to be the national equivalent of the Hell's Angels. Periodically throughout our history, the American majority has had to relearn the importance of what Dr. Phil and international law books term "boundaries". Having again stormed into a smaller nation that posed no threat, Americans will now pay the excruciating price of having forgotten our most recent lesson in humility.

There is much more and I suggest you read the entire piece. I will close with his final paragraphs where he discusses the blessings.

When the French military was routed at Waterloo, it ostensibly represented a crushing blow for France. But despite the harrowing loss of national pride, Napoleon's demise was a liberating moment for his subjects. No longer did they have to sacrifice their children needlessly, nor be complicit in a megalomaniac's quest for world domination. In retrospect, the grueling defeat turned out to be a godsend for the French.

The United States is going to experience a similar mixed blessing in Iraq. Along with the tragedy of lost American lives and dignity will come the collective realization that there are limits to tormenting other nations, even when brandishing a military juggernaut. That hard-earned recognition will make America a better country and the world a safer place, at least until the rancid memories of botched conquest dissipate yet again.

George Bush may have two Waterloos on his horizon both a long term plus for the people of the United States. In addition to the Iraqi debacle it appears his Social Security plan may derail the rest of his horrible domestic agenda.