In Iraq, war endures

Nahrain Al-Mousawi assesses the state of Iraq:

The enduring nature of the Iraq war is reflected by recent developments on the ground. U.S. announcement of the war’s end was met with a coordinated bombing in Baghdad on December 22, 2011, consisting of 16 explosions that involved 9 car bombs, 6 roadside bombs, and 1 mortar. Within two hours, 63 people were killed and 185 wounded. Amidst these bombings, the tributes to Christopher Hitches [sic], who had succumbed to cancer on December 15, 2011, were a particularly fitting reminder of the American disconnect between reality and rhetoric on Iraq. Commentators were effusive in their praise of Hitchens’ rhetorical form and debating style. Transitioning easily from lamenting the war to celebrating one of its cheerleaders, these hagiographies mirrored the facile and absurd reconciliation of rhetoric and reality characteristic of a culture Hitchens “helped create and has left behind. It’s a culture that has developed far too easy a conscience about, and sleeps too soundly amid, the facts of war.”

You're likely to find me in agreement if you're point is that the rhetoric surrounding war most often thoroughly misrepresents its reality, or that those who are powerless and without influence must almost always undertake and live with the 'facts of war' while the powerful do not. It must also be brought to your attention that nobody, to my knowledge, could present a persuasive argument negating the contention that Iraq is in a truly sorry state of affairs.

The opposing sides of interventionism are not really addressed in the piece, but the most outspoken critics of the liberation of Iraq are rarely asked the important questions when it comes to their position on the issue: is it really the case that non-interventionalism would have resulted in less suffering, less cruelty? Undoubtedly, the weight of war has been tremendous, but the weight of Hussein's hideous dictatorship may have perhaps been heavier still.

(Image: Protestors in Sulaimaniyah's Sara Square on Mar. 25, 2011. Samer Muscati / Human Rights Watch)