Despite all of the troubles plaguing the Iraqi government of late, and the overwhelming condemnation of Nouri Maliki, at least he has had the guts to say something that should have been said months ago…

“He said the Democratic senators were acting as if Iraq was “their property” and that they should “come to their senses” and “respect democracy”.

At least when you overthrow a tyrant yourself you know where you stand. It might take decades for it to occur, for all of the right pieces to fall into place, and for a truly inspired movement to achieve a level of dedication at which point the people are willing to sacrifice for the possibility of a better future.

When democracy is achieved under those conditions it has a chance. That’s not to say that that chance would not be fraught with problems, but at least they would be the problems of those that stood up and took control of their own volition, for their own sake, and their own future as an independent people.

Iraq will suffer the long dark of chaos before anything even remotely resembling what we would consider normality will ever come to it. It is nothing but a pawn in the game of others to be used as they see fit while cast as free, primarily for the sake of those that sit half a world away, convinced that what has transpired there it is a part of some greater global conflict that has been wrapped tightly in the precepts of nobility.

Be it in Iraq or Afghanistan, the truth is that we are fighting ourselves. We are fighting our own creations, our own mistakes, our own ignorance, arrogance, and sense of entitlement. We will not be satisfied until such a time that victory is achieved, and thus must wait for the inevitability of our own undoing to see it realized.

When it comes to subduing nations, as we learned all too well during the Second World War, the best policy is to unleash a level of violence upon them that is utterly cruel and unforgiving. Both Japan and West Germany became democratic in the years following the war, both of them having been so utterly decimated that adhering to the will of those responsible was required to simply save themselves. In both cases they were also occupied by foreign armies, and in both cases those that occupied them played a significant role in the formation of their governments. Perhaps, when all is said and done, that is what should be done in Iraq and Afghanistan if the ultimate goal is to secure the existence of governments that are wholly dependent on those that seek to ensure that they exist to promote foreign interests. Because freedom is not something that exists simply because foreign armies invade and occupy a nation and them claim it free. That presumption is the great mistake of the world’s elite, and one that has been played out time and again around the globe for centuries.

Who are we better than, and what gives us the right to claim ourselves thus? If our way of life is better than most, then why is it the most destructive way of life on the planet? Why does it produce the most waste, the most pollution, and the most weapons of war?

We have been here before on numerous occasions. There was a time, over 2000 years ago, when a great Republic existed that promoted the virtues of democracy no less fervently as we do. They too wandered far a field, using their military might to subdue those considered unenlightened, those considered threats, but most of all – those considered economically quintessential to their existence. And like all who would use freedom as an excuse for a myriad of unscrupulous undertakings, they eventually succumbed under the weight of their own hypocrisy. They too created enemies, ones which would eventually arrive at their gates and smash them into splinters while they sat aghast in disbelief that such a thing could even happen. And they would not be the last to do so.

Self determination is not something that is a predominant feature throughout history. In fact, it is the exception.