Wolcott on The Economist on the Iraq Occupation
Vanity Fair contributing editor James Wolcott has this interesting weblog posting on the US situation in Iraq: Kind of a shame.
He leads off with an extended quotation from The Economist:
There is only one traffic law in Ramadi these days: when Americans approach, Iraqis scatter. Horns blaring, brakes screaming, the midday traffic skids to the side of the road as a line of Humvee jeeps ferrying American marines rolls the wrong way up the main street. Every vehicle, that is, except one beat-up old taxi. Its elderly driver, flapping his outstretched hands, seems, amazingly, to be trying to turn the convoy back. Gun turrets swivel and lock on to him, as a hefty marine sargeant leaps into the road, levels an assault rifle at his turbanned head, and screams: ‘Back this bitch up, motherfucker!’
Wolcott’s conclusion:
There’s a Peter Cook-Dudley Moore routine, one of their woolgathering dialogues, where Dud asks Pete, “So would you say you’ve learned from your mistakes?” and Pete replies: “Oh yes, I’m certain I could repeat them exactly.”
That seems to have been the Bush administration’s approach to Iraq. Take the mistakes of Vietnam and repeat them exactly.
