The escalation of force in Iraq was a political ploy to roll back the 'terrorist fringe' in Iraq -- far enough for Bush to free enough soldiers to diversify his militarism, perhaps, to muckrake in Iran or Syria. But, there's much more to the administration's desperate flailing of our soldiers around Iraq than just their desire to 'win' anything there. They are locked in their own original game of seeking validation for their roles as protectors of the world after the September 11 attacks. It's their only relevant reason for being.
Wisdom hasn't followed John McCain as he's aged. If it has, it's been overtaken by his ambition to be president. The former POW has forgotten the lesson of Nixon's stubborn refusal to accept that democracy couldn't be imposed at the point of a gun. He's even allowed himself to remain indifferent to the plights of the over 20,00 detainees languishing in U.S. run prisons in the nation he imagines he's building in Iraq.
Like Bush, McCain is left to try and maintain a posture of conflict and emergency in Iraq, just to avoid the ultimate accountability for the devastating failure which will certainly blossom into it's own special chaos following any official end to the occupation. Who knows what this old man will decide is important if he gets into office; his legacy, or ours?
"Old men are dangerous: it doesn’t matter to them what is going to happen to the world," Captain Shotover tells Ellie in George Bernard Shaw's 'Heartbreak House'.
Ellie: “I should have thought nothing else mattered to old men. They can’t be very interested in what is going to happen to themselves.”
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