More on Protests

Still wondering what protesters will do this weekend. I think that, both to maintain consistency and for the good of the Iraqi people, the slogan of peace protesters should change to “US stay in Iraq”. For that matter, this should be the slogan of most people. In Afghanistan, we basically (1) overthrew the Taliban (good), (2) installed a near puppet (not necessarily bad), (3) gave the puppet protection and support in the capital and left the countryside wide open for the warlods, and (4) for the most part left. Along the way, President Bush forget to put funding for reconstruction of Afghanisan into his budet.

Following this pattern in Iraq seems likely to lead to a three-way civil war, which in turn seems likely to lead to Kurds declaring independence. Kurdish independence is fine in principle, but Turkey may then invade. Hopefully, Turkey’s membership in NATO and desire to join the EU would forestall that last step.

AB