Religious Conversion Is All That's Left

Over at Warblogging.com, George Paine has an important point to make about the evolution of Iraq into America's Spanish-New-World-colony, complete with forced labor. I would only add that a blindered, willful failure to see the situation in the Mideast as it is, and to understand the motives of the people who we call terrorists (not all of whom have similar reasons for their actions) has been the biggest reason for why we only continue to dig this grave deeper.

The piece that set him off, an article in the Boston Globe, had this revealing bit:

""You have to say, 'Here are the rules,' and you are firm and fair. That radiates stability," said Lieutenant Colonel Dave Bellon, intelligence officer for the First Regimental Combat Team, the Marine regiment that took the western half of Fallujah during the US assault and expects to be based downtown for some time.
Bellon asserted that previous attempts to win trust from Iraqis suspicious of US intentions had telegraphed weakness by asking, " 'What are your needs? What are your emotional needs?' All this Oprah [stuff]," he said. "They want to figure out who the dominant tribe is and say, 'I'm with you.' We need to be the benevolent, dominant tribe."

Is it any wonder we are having such stunning success in the Tigris Valley, with keen minds like Bellon at the helm? Perhaps if the Lt. Colonel's loved ones could have the same experience of American liberation as the people of Iraq, he might be more insightful as to why they act as they do.

And I must add that this "benevolent, dominant" bushwa reminds me all too much of the rationale of religions that like their women in their place: that is, giving obeisance to males in exchange for protection and kindly treatment. Does this mean we want Iraq to be our bitch? I guess that kind of marriage will require religious conversion, too...for the sake of the children.