micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links: How many more elections before the U.S. doesn't run Iraq?

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As Juan Cole noted on November 2, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani recently said in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat that he was opposed to the United States launching an invasion of Syria from Iraq, but that he couldn't really do anything to stop it. AFP (November 2) writes:

"I categorically refuse the use of Iraqi soil to launch a military strike against Syria or any other Arab country," Talabani told the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat in an interview published Tuesday.

"But at the end of the day my ability to confront the US military is limited and I cannot impose on them my will."

Jalal seems like a nice chap who understands how the world works. If his September comment on how Iraq needed the U.S. to "frighten [Iraq's] neighbors" wasn't enough to earn him a treat, this one certainly is. I mean if the world was made up solely of people as wise, docile and subservient as him, we would all be a lot better off:

From the same AFP article:

On Monday, US warplanes struck what commanders described as a house sheltering an "al-Qaeda cell leader" near the border town of Al-Qaim [i.e. near Syria], in the latest in a string of operations against suspected foreign fighters in the region.

But medics in the town and Arabic media reports spoke of 35-plus civilian deaths in the air strike.

I've been wondering about this since I first heard of the incident - why didn't the brave people who keep me free just, oh I don't know, raid the house, and take and/or take out who they wanted. Sure it would have been more dangerous for the troops, but if we captured them and then proceeded to torture their terrorist behinds, we would get great info that I'm sure would save many more lives over the long term.

All of this is almost enough to make think that maybe, just maybe, the goal of the United States is not to liberate the Iraqians. In fact, I think I would feel that way if I hadn't had the good fortune today of reading a fine column by Oliver North (townhall.com, November 4) where one of the greatest American heroes ever -sometimes I feel like not supporting America, freedom and God but then I look at pictures of Him and I do the right thing- just takes it as a given that the U.S. is trying to liberate Iraq and correctly and brilliantly lambastes evil non-Republican Democrats for trying to undermine America's President George W. Bush on charges of dishonesty in justifying a war even though the war is still going on.