I was listening to Bill Kristol on Fresh Air last night, and during the course of Terry Gross’ interview of Kristol, he said something to the effect of “We want to get Iraq to a place where it’s not a threat to its neighbors”. Now, I know what he was trying to say, but I have to disagree. We manifestly do want Iraq to be a “danger” to its neighbors. That’s the whole point of this “neo-con crusade” in the first place, isn’t it?
We want Iran to fear Iraq, as we want Syria, the House of Saud and, to a lesser extend, Jordan and Turkey to fear Iraq. A democratic Iraq. An Iraq with freedom of the press, with freedom of speech, with minority protections. The levels of support that the first three nations are throwing behind the “insurgency” show just how much fear those regimes already have of a free Iraq, while Jordan and Turkey are terrified of what an empowered, independent Kurdish Iraqi population will mean inside their borders.
That was the overarching goal of this whole invasion, right?
