Ahmadinejad in Iraq (revised)

I was going to write about the incredible contrast between the Bush visit to Iraq and Ahmadinejad's.

But I just discovered Andrew Sullivan saying the more or less the same thing I wanted to say in his Daily Dish: "One telling reflection of the Bush administration's handling of the region: the Islamo-fascist was able to announce his visit well in advance; the American president had to go in strict secrecy. There you have a small insight into the immense damage to American power that this administration has inflicted. And who really won the war against Saddam."

We are in Iraq, according the Bush myth, to defeat the terrorism that threatens both us and the poor Iraqis. You would think that his actions would make him a hero to the Iraqis. In the meantime, however, when Bush visited, he had to sneak into the country and sneak out. Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader and therefore practically the devil himself (again according to the Bush myth), entered Iraq with great fanfare. He apparently wasn't worried about getting assassinated. A good question for the naive to ask is "How could this be? Why isn't our president the one who is greeted as a hero?"

I am no fan of Ahmadinejad's. He is a simple man who rose to power because of a simplistic view of the world that matches that of other fundamentalists in Iran. But we have to face the fact that the majority of Iraqis are quite happy with Ahmadinejad and his worldview. They share the same view of fundamental Islam: namely, the Shiite version articulated by the Ayatollahs. And by remaining in Iraq, we are unwittingly helping to impose the Shiite will on the minority Sunnis who were ruling under Saddam. The terrorists known as "Al Qaeda-in-Iraq" wouldn't have existed without our intervention, and without our assistance in imposing the Shiite will on the Sunnis. We may say that we want everyone to get along in Iraq. But it hasn't happened and isn't likely to happen anytime soon.

I understand the sentiment that it's a horrible shame if our young men died there in vain. People get incredibly angry if you suggest that's the case. But sometimes that's the reality. Bad presidents make bad decisions and a lot of people die for those mistakes who shouldn't have had to die. We now have a very bad president who makes very bad decisions.