Bizarro Imperialism

The status of forces agreement has been demoted to the level of a "memorandum of understanding," so as not to require a vote by the US Congress, nevertheless it cannot avoid a vote in the Iraqi Parliament. That's what they mean by "exporting" democracy: It's the Iraqis who do the voting, while we just get to foot the bill.

That's how American imperialism works. We're the only empire on earth where, as Garet Garrett put it, "everything goes out and nothing comes in." In the olden days, you'll recall, when Roman legionnaires went a' conquering, at least they came back with some loot, which they would distribute to the populace whilst keeping some for themselves: however, here in Bizarro Rome, it's we who are being looted. Not that I'm suggesting the Iraqis ought to pay the costs of their own occupation, but only to point out the irony of our predicament.

Let's see if I have this straight. Some Saudis blew up our buildings in New York and we couldn't find them in Afghanistan because they went to Pakistan. But Pakistan is our ally so we can't look for the terrorists there so we decided to bomb Iraq. The Taliban is getting stronger in Afghanistan but we are winning the War on Terror because we can blow up stuff in Iraq and spend our dollars to rebuild it. We are doing all this so the Iraqis will have a democratic government and make their own decisions but, right now, they can't decide because we are not through bombing them. That makes sense - doesn't it? It just seems we are wasting a lot of money over there when it would be more efficient to invest it over here. But that's just me.