Unjustifiable

As all the war criminals and incompetent minions from the Bush administration start to appear on tv and in opinion columns trying to justify the unjustifiable, their war policy, one common refrain is heard . And the media unsurprisingly twiddle their thumbs.

I just heard Condi Rice on CNN say that while she regretted not finding WMDs (why not regret butchering the intelligence and lying to the public?), she did not regret "liberating Iraq."

This argument is a corollary to the same type of thinking from those who supported the war before it began. Whereas if you were against the war back then you were "pro-Saddam," now they will justify the invasion and occupation as a good thing because Saddam was removed.

Of course it's faulty logic, just don't expect any prominent media figures to hold their feet to the fire. First the issue is framed in a Bush friendly way. Why not ask them if they support killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people and devastating a country's infrastructure and social relations for generations?

But I believe an analogy typical of a intro philosophy of law course will work better here. A very dangerous killer is hiding in a large building. If he escapes he is certain to kill again. So the police decide to blow up the building, killing him and several hundred innocent people along the way (not to mention the millions of dollars of damages).

Later the police chief appears on CNN. She's asked by the probing journalist if the action was warranted. Her response is that she didn't regret killing the brutal murderer.... And the journalist leaves it at that.

(update: I noticed that the Rice interview on CNN was originally from The View so it's not like I think they would ask the difficult questions. Then again, would you really expect any more from CNN "journalists?")

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While everyone is focused on the stimulus package here in the United States, not surprisingly there is little discussion of the very important election in Iraq on Saturday. From a informed observer of the goings on in Iraq:

On Saturday, January 31, Iraq will conduct its first elections since 2005, when Iraqis went to the polls to select both their national parliament and provincial councils. This time, the election will decide only the provincial councils in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces. Still, the election is likely to be a turning point for Iraq. Which way it turns -- toward greater democracy, or toward further instability and a return of violent resistance -- depends on what happens on Saturday.

It's not a pretty picture. The elections promise to be marred by violence, fraud, intimidation, vote-buying and bribery, bloc voting by tribes and ethnic constituencies, and undue influence by Shiite clerics.

If things don't go smoothly, and if the elections don't result in gains for parties that were shut out of the political process in 2005 -- especially among Iraq's disenfranchised Sunni bloc -- then it's very likely that violence will increase once again. It's even possible that many Sunnis will return to armed resistance, and some of them will rejoin Al Qaeda in Iraq

Read the rest of the article. It's a very good rundown of the current political situation/mess in Iraq.