A couple of posts at Balloon Juice on the Iraq tape from Wikileaks. A bit of meta-analysis, if you like, here, from John Cole, and here, from Mistermix. From Cole, on the question of the Iraqi reaction:
We’re issuing death threats to congressmen and half the nation has been whipped into a frothing mob and wants to secede because… we expanded health insurance coverage after a legitimate legislative process that was the result of open, free, and fair elections. Can you imagine what would happen if foreign helicopters were gunning down our neighbors in the streets?
(I don't want to be snarky, but I think it would depend on whether Beck/Limbaugh/Palin identified them as Democratic helicopters or not. No, wait: that crew would ID them as Democrats no matter where they came from: "Obamacopters," for sure.)
And via Mistermix, from James Fallows:
We could not know that this episode would occur. But we could be sure that something like it would. It's not even a matter of "To will the end is to will the means." Rather the point is: You enter these circumstances, sooner or later you get these results.
I can't see this as such a far remove from the point I brought up the other day: when we're granting moral waivers to racists and violent criminals, and awarding no-bid contracts to independent forces who are staffed by men (mostly, I believe, if not exclusively) trained to kill and who have no accountability for their actions, what the hell does anyone expect? Aside from the combat priorities (and frankly, in this instance that argument sounds a little lame -- begging a wounded man to pick up a gun so you can shoot him again?), you've got a problematic attitude already endemic among the troops. And the Army says no one did anything wrong.
What the hell do you do when your country has lost its mind?
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