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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 21-Nov-05
Vitriolic Iraq war politics erupts in Washington

Web Log - November, 2005

Vitriolic Iraq war politics erupts in Washington

But the basics of the Iraq war haven't changed a bit.

I turned on CNN on Friday morning and heard news anchor Miles O'Brien say that the civil war had already begun. I saw Pat Buchanan on MSNBC predict "a real disaster" in Iraq a Vietnam-like defeat. Pat Buchanan was in the Nixon administration when they lost Vietnam. Now he thinks that there'll be a debate on "who lost Iraq?"

The vitriol reached a peak on Thursday when Democratic Congressman John Murtha made an anti-war speech with rhetoric straight out the Vietnam era, calling for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, followed up by a really nasty remark about people who sat behind during the Vietnam war shouldn't be sending soldiers to Iraq now. This drew an equally nasty remark from Ohio Congresswoman Jean Schmidt, quoting a Marine colonel sending "Congressman Murtha a message: that cowards cut and run, Marines never do."

This is the nature of the times, as happens during "generational crisis" periods. The nation's leaders are from the arrogant, narcissistic Boomer generation, born after WW II. They spent their youth as hippies in anti-war demonstrations in the 1960s, and now they're in trying the same thing as aging hippies in 2005. But they have no skills at accomplishing anything except political arguments, so nothing really ever gets done. So we see arguments over Karl Rove, the Iraq war, Scooter Libby, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, and the Iraq war again. The country is on cruise control.

Pundits are calling this a pivotal moment of change, but in fact nothing has changed. Let's list some things that haven't changed:

The anti-war movement is toothless and virtually non-existent. It's really an anti-Bush movement. Everyone knows that a pullout from Iraq would be an international catastrophe, so it won't happen despite the silly rhetoric. In particular, college students aren't protesting; to them, two Boomers arguing is about as interesting as two dinosaurs fighting.

There will be no civil war in Iraq. I've explained this a million times on this web site: Iraq is in a generational awakening period, only one generation past the genocidal Iran/Iraq war, and history tells us that a civil war at this time is impossible.

The Iraq war won't spread democracy through the Mideast. The original "neo-conservative" master plan was that by restoring democracy in Iraq, democracy would then spread around the Mideast. Generational Dynamics tells us that this master plan is impossible.

The Iraq war has nothing to do with the increase in terrorism around the Mideast. Those opposing the war claim that the Iraqi war is energizing the terrorist insurgency led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. This view overlooks what would have happened if we hadn't invaded Iraq: Saddam would still be in power, still funding suicide terrorists in Palestine, and we would still be wondering whether he would planning to sell weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) to terrorists. The situation would be even worse than it is now.

The Mideast is still headed for a war between Arabs and Jews, spreading to a major regional war that will draw in many other identity groups.

This is not the 1960s.

As I've said many times before, the Iraqi people are not in any mood for war, having lost hundreds of thousands of young men in the Iran/Iraq war of the 1980s. The Iraqi people will not participate in a war unless they're forced to, although Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is doing his best to trigger one. As the world heads for a "clash of civilizations" world war, al-Zarqawi may yet bring full scale war to Iraq, but it will be from the outside, not from civil war. (21-Nov-05) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 21-Nov-05 Vitriolic Iraq war politics erupts in Washington

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 21-Nov-05
Vitriolic Iraq war politics erupts in Washington