Lounsbury: Off the bloody cliff

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May 01, 2004

Off the bloody cliff

Exhausted, rather too much to do to comment properly. I was unaware of the Iraqi prisoner story for a good two days after the CBS News broadcast. Have not had the occasion to see the Arab Sats directly, but am led to understand that it is a frenzy.

This is nothing short of a disaster, and will be a long term problem.

The climb down in Fallujah is ambiguous, but frankly after the bluster, the posturing, it looks weak, it looks like a capitulation.

I am frankly amazed at the bumbling incompetence that the US has reflected in the past few weeks, even by the standards I saw with CPA over the past year or somewhat more.

While an invasion of Fallujah would have been madness, but speaking loudly and carrying a small stick which proved unusable, the Americans have come off as fools, weak fools. This will indeed embolden the opposition.

I sometimes ask myself, can the present Administration engage Iraq in ways that are any worse? The answer is of course yes, but this mish mash of strong talk, ambiguous action (weak then strong then weak) is making a hash out of policies that might, just might have worked. Spoilers.

I note that this is having blow back in the business world. This past week I had trouble getting meetings, for all that there was prior interest. Spoke to a local origin comrade, tells me he spoke with the same people, who told him they did not want to deal with Americans now. Sensation is there, the US is in the process of truly and substantively damaging its real interests, not the airy theoretical ones but real interests.

I am really getting frustrated, having a hard time seeing how to get around this fiasco. Perhaps should work for the Dutch.

May 01, 2004

Off the bloody cliff

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