Divider, not a uniter
This post at Daily Kos is just further proof of what I think is the biggest mistake the Bush administration has made in Iraq, and the reason they made it goes to the very heart of the way this administration thinks. I believe (and will never know if I am right or wrong) that one of the first things we should have done upon entering Iraq was to set up a truth and reconciliation commission. Not only would it have shown the world that Americans are forgiving and fair people, but it would have helped diffuse a lot of the tension among the Sunnis, who would understand that they would be forgiven and let back into society. Instead, they were ostracized and therefore easily recruited by insurgents. Perhaps it would not have worked, but we could then at least have pointed to it as an effort to show that we are not greedy occupiers.
It is, however, a thought that would be anathema to this administration. This is an administration that tries to buy off democratic allies whose populations overwhelmingly do not support us, and then talks about a coup when that does not work. This is an administration which tells us Syria is a junior member in the axis of evil, but we can trust them when they say they won’t torture any prisoners we send there.
One of the reasons we continue to fail in uniting Iraq is that we have a leader who only knows how to divide.
