The New Road

Iraq

It's been a while, but I'm going to talk about Iraq again. For whatever reason I keep thinking back to the time of the Coalition Provisional Authority and how we squandered a year after the 'end of combat operations'. Why? Oh, yeah, because it's a story of Republican cronyism.

Anywho, we invade, we win, and then what? Nobody knows. So they create this thing called the Coalition Provisional Authority to govern. But who to bring in, right? Can't be liberals, can't be bureaucrats, has to be good Republican stock. So where do they go? Republican campaign staffers and Heritage Foundation folks.

Generall speaking... Kids. Literally. Kids. Like 20 somethings. And they give these kids the keys to the kingdom. The money, the plans, the whole deal. No government experience required. Just the right ideology. Because what Iraqis need more than electricity is the assurance that they won't be allowed to do stem cell research.

One particular story is illustrative of all of this; car traffic in Baghdad always has been a kind of controlled chaos. There are no real rules. But you can be fined by these ad-hoc cops who would pocket most of the fine. It's bribery and what not. But it works for Baghdad and has for a long time.

In comes one of these Heritage Foundation kids, and he sees this and is just dumbfounded. It's not the American way. It's not the way that Baghdad, this flowering beacon of neo-conservatism, should be.

So he takes it upon himself to rewrite, or I should say write, a new Iraqi traffic code. In the green zone. Without actually consulting any Iraqis. He just holes up in his office, and lays out these rules and plans. Even better he based it on the Massachusetts drivings laws. Because God only knows that Boston is where the best driving happens.

What becomes of his masterwork? It's rolled out here and there. Quickly abandoned in favor of the old, chaotic, but workable system. And when his year is up, boom, he is gone. Buh, bye. "Glad I could help."

One would hope that the gentlemen at least had learned what the expression "If it ain't broke don't fix it" meant.

But all that is in the past, right? Not really. That story is a microcosm of the macrocosm. It strongly echoes in what we are trying to do today. The administration just doesn't seem to grasp that what we are seeing today is the continuation of a Sunni/Shiite feud that has been going on for generations. We don't understand the history and the culture. It's the same thing that happened in Vietnam. And we are getting killed in Iraq in just as pointless and futile way as we were in Vietnam.