Iraq: the ultimate gambling addiction

Gamblers often go into denial when they lose. If only they had more money to bet, things would turn around. Those who gambled the fate of Iraq on a military invasion have crapped out. Yet they display the gamblers mentality. Let me bet on one more number at the roulette table and all will be well.

The Iraq invasion was a combination Neo-con political fantasy about building democratic regimes on the cheap, confused Cold War mentality about securing the US from terrorist attacks, and crony politics and capitalism as the way to reconstruct the country. This explosive mix of thoroughly bad ideas has indeed exploded. That has not dissuaded the folks with an Iraq addiction from asking for more lives and money to bet on failed strategy.

Too many Americans persist in believing, even after the disaster, the US can make better decisions about the fate of Iraq than its citizens can. Americans live in a dream state where they believe the collateral damage caused by the current occupation is acceptable to the Iraqis. This uniquely American attitude is a childish failure to sympathize at the most reasonable and basic level.

For the life of me, I cannot find a reason to support folks in their Iraq gambling habit. The Bush Cult will call this appeasement and defeatist. To which I say, who cares what a bunch of losers think.