A Policy of Denial

MANIFESTO

As usual, Josh Marshall puts his finger on why the Iraq occupation has turned into the travesty it has:

[R]ight near the beginning of this nightmare it was clear the sole remaining premise for the war was false: that is, the idea that the Iraqis would freely choose a government that would align itself with the US and its goals in the region. As the occupation continued, anti-American sentiment -- both toward the occupation and America's role in the world -- has only grown.

I would submit that virtually everything we've done in Iraq since mid-late 2003 has been an effort to obscure this fact. And our policy has been one of continuing the occupation to create the illusion that this reality was not in fact reality. In short, it was a policy of denial.

I'm indebted to Dr. Marshall once again for crystallizing what I've been ruminating on, but have been unable to articulate.