Wednesday, December 03, 2003
And Speaking of Iraq...
Paramilitary. Conjure up anything?
Let's see, death squads in Central America; ethnic cleansing in Bosnia; mayhem in Kosovo used deliberately to push a million people into a no man's land of instant refugee camps.
To be fair, in Iraq, paramilitary groups have no such hideous record; they were an understandable response to Saddam's own homicidal tendencies. But surely now that we're trying to help the Iraqis rebuild an army and a police force, the last thing on earth the US would want to do is anything that might legitimize the notion of militias attached to political parties, or anything that could be labelled paramilitary.
Think again.
Do ideas come any worse than this one?
Well, yes, as a matter of fact.
And now I think I'll just tiptoe off and refurbish my heart and mind with a large Margarita.
Let's see, death squads in Central America; ethnic cleansing in Bosnia; mayhem in Kosovo used deliberately to push a million people into a no man's land of instant refugee camps.
To be fair, in Iraq, paramilitary groups have no such hideous record; they were an understandable response to Saddam's own homicidal tendencies. But surely now that we're trying to help the Iraqis rebuild an army and a police force, the last thing on earth the US would want to do is anything that might legitimize the notion of militias attached to political parties, or anything that could be labelled paramilitary.
Think again.
Do ideas come any worse than this one?
Well, yes, as a matter of fact.
And now I think I'll just tiptoe off and refurbish my heart and mind with a large Margarita.