Not Our Fault

Matthew 27: 24-25

24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.
25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.


For those of you worrying about Iraq and in particular, America's contribution to that nation's destruction, civil war, and overall murder and mayhem, fear not.

Charles Krauthammer has weighed in and declared that it ain't our bad. No way, Jose.

As One Allowed To Write For The Washington Post, Krauthammer says:

Our objectives in Iraq were twofold and always simple: Depose Saddam Hussein and replace his murderous regime with a self-sustaining, democratic government.

So there (notice how the aim of uncovering and destroying the Iraqi dictator's much vaunted and feared WMD enters not into this itinerary). We were there to do the Iraqi's some good, whether they wanted it or not, and whether or not the world community thought it was A-OK.

We might not have been invited. But our hearts were in the right place.

So what went wrong?

I have my own theories. In retrospect, I think we made several serious mistakes -- not shooting looters, not installing an Iraqi exile government right away, and not taking out Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army in its infancy in 2004 -- that greatly compromised the occupation. Nonetheless, the root problem lies with Iraqis and their political culture.

Yeah. We were too easy on them, those people we went to liberate. Should have been more brutal. And don't give me any crap about how more U.S. troops would have meant fewer or no Iraqi looters to shoot. The Man already said it ain't our fault. So all you hate-America firsters just shut the *&^% up.

And then there's the problem of Iraq's so-called "sovereign" government.

Last month American soldiers captured a Mahdi Army death squad leader in Baghdad -- only to be forced to turn him loose on order of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Two weeks ago, we were ordered, again by Maliki, to take down the barricades we had established around Sadr City in search of another notorious death squad leader and a missing American soldier.

This is no way to conduct a war.

Damn straight. Maliki may nominally head Iraq's "sovereign" government, but the term "sovereign" should be understood loosely. The term "sovereign" was a word meant for U.S. domestic consumption, in 2004, when it was needed to assure an American populace about ready to engage in their own purple-finger voting process. It was not a declaration that Iraq's people and it's "elected" leaders had authority over their country, particularly in cases where American troops were conducting operations.

So, don't go into this weekend, or this happy holiday season (excuse me, Merry Christmas season--thanks O'Reilly and Gibson) for that matter, fretting about our adventure in Mesopotamia.

Is this America's fault? No.

No.