ZenPundit
Saturday, June 03, 2006
 
GUEST POSTING AT AUSTIN BAY'S BLOG

Top blogger, Colonel Austin Bay ,was kind enough to solicit my views on Haditha and diplomacy yesterday which he has posted alongside those of the esteemed FSO and blogger, Dr. Demarche ( formerly of The Daily Demarche and now over at Marc Schulman's American Future). It was nice to see the congruency between our two guest posts in terms of how the United States should handle Haditha's international impact, given that Dr. Demarche is himself a diplomat.

I'd like to thank Austin for the opportunity to be heard on such an important topic and for spotlighting Zenpundit for his many readers.

Read " Haditha and Diplomacy" here.
 
Comments:
Amid the "should's" and "ought's," we could put some more: We should not get so wrapped up in what we ought to do that we forget to look at what will likely come of this story. If we were a fully functioning 5GW force, we might be able to follow the oughts suggested by yourself and Dr. Demarche -- and, of course, back it up in multiple ways -- and have some hope of succeeding in delivering that message. Unfortunately, we are not; thus, many, many others will probably have a very large sway over whatever message(s) bubble to the top by the time it's all over.

And, anyway, those should's and ought's are old hat. I, for one, doubt that the cover-up investigation will get as far as it ought to get, and we'll probably see the same-old-same-old. Too hard to say at this point what will happen. (Not enough info.) If the cover-up actually extends pretty high, punishment of the higher-up individuals will probably lead to more blow-back than benefit for us. It would be "proof" of systemic negligence or systemic corruption. That's always one potential problem with punishing those who are integral to the systems that currently exist. That's also why, historically,scapegoats have proven to be quite useful.

But either way, scapegoat or higher-up, I think that the cover-up investigation will lead to more trouble for us than the actual atrocity committed in Iraq. As these things do. One intensifies the other.
 
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