That a government this willing to sacrifice the sons and daughters of its citizens might also be willing to sacrifice the good name of the country, and the good will of the world toward the country, no longer seems overly farfetched.
Add in the increasingly apparent subversion of the democratic process to theocratic scheming and foreign interest, and what we seem to have is not a failure of policy, not a mistake in strategy, but a plan that proceeds exactly as it was conceived.
The de-stabilization of Iraq, the deep and carrying alteration and displacement of native power and local organization - not as unforeseen by-product, but as goal.
Most of the left in America is still clinging to the adolescent notion of oil-as-goal; the deception and chicanery so obvious now being explained simply as the result of economic brutality translated into weapons and human lives.
But the oil-as-purpose-for-invasion would have created a smoother-running more pacified country, and quickly; these are men who unite around their greed, and who enforce their will most effectively.
We don't see that.
A destabilized Iraq hampers the extraction of petroleum in the short-term, and that's the only time frame the oil cartel works within.
The one way this all makes grim sense is if the goal all along was a destabilized Iraq - a broken nation, and a powerless people.
It would appear that an acceptable collateral price for that goal's achievement was a destabilized, broken, and powerless America - not immediately, but inevitably, as a direct result of these policies and the cynical immorality that drives them.
Add in the increasingly apparent subversion of the democratic process to theocratic scheming and foreign interest, and what we seem to have is not a failure of policy, not a mistake in strategy, but a plan that proceeds exactly as it was conceived.
The de-stabilization of Iraq, the deep and carrying alteration and displacement of native power and local organization - not as unforeseen by-product, but as goal.
Most of the left in America is still clinging to the adolescent notion of oil-as-goal; the deception and chicanery so obvious now being explained simply as the result of economic brutality translated into weapons and human lives.
But the oil-as-purpose-for-invasion would have created a smoother-running more pacified country, and quickly; these are men who unite around their greed, and who enforce their will most effectively.
We don't see that.
A destabilized Iraq hampers the extraction of petroleum in the short-term, and that's the only time frame the oil cartel works within.
The one way this all makes grim sense is if the goal all along was a destabilized Iraq - a broken nation, and a powerless people.
It would appear that an acceptable collateral price for that goal's achievement was a destabilized, broken, and powerless America - not immediately, but inevitably, as a direct result of these policies and the cynical immorality that drives them.
