By Jim Holt
London Review of Books
Editors’ Note: The LRB and Holt are British mainstream liberals, conservative at times, a position Cyrano is certainly not comfortable with nor endorses. But this article presents a plausible explanation for what otherwise would have to be a case of historically unprecedented and criminally insane meddling in the affairs of another nation. But the fact this analysis posits a rational scenario for this murderous war is not exactly comforting.
Iraq is ‘unwinnable’, a ‘quagmire’, a ‘fiasco’: so goes the received opinion. But there is good reason to think that, from the Bush-Cheney perspective, it is none of these things. Indeed, the US may be ‘stuck’ precisely where Bush et al want it to be, which is why there is no ‘exit strategy’. Continue reading ‘It’s the Oil —hard lessons in realpolitik’
