http://boztopia.com/?p=64Adele M. Stan, America, Atrios, conservative, domination, Duncan Black, empire, Iraq, Iraq war, liberal, Middle Easthttp://boztopia.com/?p=64#comments

I haven’t written much about the war lately, because, frankly, there isn’t much else you can say about it. How many times can we go over what a colossal mistake this quagmire was? How many times can we demand accountability and the end of a brutal, bloody, destructive mistake that has cost us and the world unimaginably?

Therefore, as much as I love Adele and want to agree with her, I have to side with Atrios: The best thing we can do for Iraq is get the fuck out.

Liberals hate that idea because it offends our belief that we can bring the values we uphold to those that need them and make the world a better place. Conservatives hate it because it implies defeat, weakness, surrender, and failure. But a failure it is, and offense we must accept, because Iraq does not want us. All we have done there is bring murder and devastation, and all the good that we did in toppling Saddam has been overwhelmed by the endless stream of violence brutality that all sides are living with.

The failure in Iraq is emblematic of America’s fragility as an empire. Our dreams of unilateral domination of the Middle East are just that–dreams–and now the world sees us far differently than it once did. And we deserve every bit of that scorn and derision. Rather than focus our efforts on capturing the man who directly struck at us, we went to war with an entirely different villain, based on a lie, and have destroyed a nation, crippled our armed forces, and built a crucible of terrorism as a result.

We can’t fix Iraq. We have failed. We should just get out now before we do any more damage and pray to God that we can do so with as little death as possible.