CHANGE MY LOCATION
Jay McDonough
Progressive Politics Examiner
Examiner Feeds
These websites were picked by the Progressive Politics Examiner as useful resources.National Examiners
Early Childhood Parenting Examiner
Most Recent Article
Holiday Gift Guide 2008: Gifts for eco-conscious families
Business Examiner
Most Recent Article
Oil prices plummet, but will gas prices continue to fall? Tell us what you think
Business News Examiner
Most Recent Article
3 tips that may save your business, preserve jobs & improve the bottom line
Examiner is growing in Los Angeles
We are seeking writers... Ready to join us? Learn More »
A Failure of Imagination
2 comments
And, for the most part, it's worked for the Republicans. Prior to 2006, they won a bunch of elections using Rovian tactics. There's a downside to the approach though. After they're done dicing and slicing the electorate to win the election, there's no easy way to develop policy that unifies. The deed is done; the electorate is split into voting blocs that each have demands and expectations that go contrary to the other little voting blocs.
The result is a Congress that can't get anything done and an approval rating in the teens. And an electorate that's disgusted by the whole thing.
So, when it came time to develop a strategy for Iraq that included reconciling the disparate religious factions and building a unity government, guess what approach the Bush Administration took? Karl, where did you put that playbook?
Rather than developing strategies for reconciling intra-Shia factions, the U.S. position encourages military solutions. Empowering the Sunni Awakening with funding certainly benefited our efforts to fight al Qaeda, but at the expense of a well armed, well funded contingent with marginal ties to a Iraqi republic. U.S. strategy towards the Kurds in northern Iraq has been one of benign neglect rather than encouraging consolidation.
The Bush Administration's (and John McCain's) stated objective is to leave Iraq a unified, functional republic. Given lots of evidence the Rove strategy provides, at best, short term success but little unity, it's tragic for both Americans and Iraqis the Administration couldn't have used a wee bit more imagination to formulate a strategy for Iraq.
Topics: Iraq War
Subscribe
Feed
Comments
More from Progressive Politics Examiner
Obama's birth certificate; you can't keep a good conspiracy theorist down
The president's most solemn oath
Topics: Torture , Bush , Mukasey
Auto industry predictions
The case for health care investment
A picture for the day
UAW offers concessions to automakers
Subpoenas issued in Justice probe
Retired officers want torture revoked
Proposition 8 - The Musical
Topics: Proposition 8 , Funny or Die
