Issues and Individuals

Kos makes a good point:

"What's depressing is this infuriating penchant for Bush to villify individuals, as though our battles can be won by exterminating a few well-placed leaders. We have seen this with al Qaida and OBL, we have seen it with Saddam Hussein, and now with our two latest boogeymen -- Sadr and Abu Musab Zarqawi.

"The enemies we face are bigger than one person. Killing Sadr would be as effective in ending Shiite opposition as capturing Saddam was in ending Sunni opposition (or killing his sons, for that matter). Killing or capturing Osama bin Laden would make us all feel good (especially killing him), but it wouldn't have any real effect on Al Qaida operations.

"Yet the administration insists on creating the fiction that killing or capturing any one man can help us win our various wars. It's understandable, in a way -- a relatively easy way to prove progress to a domestic audience."

By quoting this, I do not mean to deny that those named above are villians, nor do I imply that they somehow represent true Arab opinion, whatever that is. However, this focus on personalities is too simplistic, and masks the real underlying issues involved with the occupation. It is easy to say that our enemies are simply bad people, much harder to explain why so many choose to follow them, and the consequences for our goals in Iraq. And I admit, too, the fear that the crowd running the show really believes their own propaganda, as they did long ago in telling us the aftermath of Saddam's fall would be a cakewalk.