In Which I Say Nyahh

Well, I've been saying at least since January that the US has to pull out of Iraq, and soon. Given the news (via Billmon) that the US is now backing Islamic law for Iraq, I think they're paving the way for exactly that. The only reason the Bush administration would concede such an embarassing reversal to the Shia is in the belief that it can calm things down in time for 2006. I think they're wrong - the US-caused civil war is still pending, in my books.

So here we are: The US invaded a country on the pretext of WMDs, which they never found. They then proceeded to claim they invaded to "liberate" the Iraqi people, who will now almost certainly find themselves living (optimistically) under an Iranian-style government, or (pessimistically) having to choose between at least three factions in a civil war. Of course, exactly this outcome was predicted by the anti-war crowd in 2002. We were called cowards, appeasers, pro-Saddam, etc etc.

One of my friends recently speculated that Canada's absence in Iraq might, in the future, be remembered as infamously as Canada's refusal to take Jewish refugees in World War II. It's a provocative thought, but I think it's not entirely sound - for Canada to be culpable, we'd have to be able to do something meaningful. Canada's military is not in a state where we could deliver a meaningful assistance to the Americans. To put it briefly, it's not our fault this is coming undone on the US.

More importantly, this war could never have been a good war. It was waged in defiance of the international community, and sold on the basis of lies. It did substantial harm to the US's relationship with the world, and undermined a half-century's worth of work on international law. It has, and could only ever have, made the world a more dangerous place in which to live. If you don't believe this, ask a Londoner.

We were right all along. Don't ever, ever let anyone tell you otherwise.