They Make Solitude and Call it Peace

"To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name empire; they make solitude and call it peace.”
- Tacitus

"What US Left Behind in Iraq is Even Uglier Than You Think"

by Nir Rosen

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/08-9

"Seven years after the disastrous American invasion, the cruelest irony in Iraq is that, in a perverse way, the neoconservative dream of creating a moderate, democratic U.S. ally in the region to counterbalance Iran and Saudi Arabia has come to fruition. But even if violence in Iraq continues to decline and the government becomes a model of democracy, no one will look to Iraq as a leader. People in the region remember -- even if the West has forgotten -- the seven years of chaos, violence, and terror. To them, this is what Iraq symbolizes. Thanks to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other failed U.S. policies in the broader Middle East, the United States has lost most of its influence on Arab people, even if it can still exert pressure on some Arab regimes."