Information Clearinghouse is hosting a 40-minute Washington Journal interview (with telephone call-ins) with Professor Juan Cole, the Middle East historian often quoted by me, and whose blog I read daily. You don't have to download IC's videos, they run right from your internet browser when you click on the link, and you can pause and restart the video at any time. I think you'll find it very interesting and edifying. Dr. Cole is very clear and forthright in his answers. One thing he mentioned that struck me was that prior to our invasion of Iraq, the Ba'ath party armed forces were being challenged by internal uprisings and barely containing Shi'a guerilla activity. Now, it seems to me that this might have played a part in the rush to invade as much as anything. For, if the Shi'ites were permitted to gain control of the government on their own, we might have had no pretense to invade, and no foothold or control of their direction.
Just thinking. Maybe I'm off track. But at this point, it looks like we have been able to strike deals with them for control over the oil, and certainly we would have been in no position to do so had they overthrown Saddam Hussein without our intervention.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
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