Questions on Rule of Law Raised by Iraqi Leader’s Use of Army – New York Times

A story entitled Questions on Rule of Law Raised by Iraqi Leader’s Use of Army in today’s New York Times tells us that after almost nine years of war in Iraq, our new client government is so weak that the head of government uses the Army at his whim to influence elections. 

Americans were killed, maimed and driven crazy by the ever increasing sociopathic tendencies of never ending combat tours for this? This is what we have taught the government of Iraq about free elections after nine years of sacrifice of our treasure and blood to “set Iraq free”?  This ?

Iraq is acting so much like a banana republic now that it might as well be repositioned on the world map in South America.  It would fit in quite well.

Here is an excerpt from the piece.

“TIKRIT, Iraq — The Iraqi Army’s Fourth Division cordoned off the provincial council building here overnight on Tuesday and showed no sign on Wednesday of leaving. It was the latest in a series of actions by the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki that have infuriated his political opponents, while raising doubts about the strength of the country’s laws and democratic institutions.

In a dispute over the provincial council’s legal powers to appoint a governor, Mr. Maliki ordered in the military here — for the second time — to exert his influence. American military commanders and diplomats expressed alarm at his willingness to use force.

“You have the law on your side,” Col. Henry A. Arnold III, commander of the First Infantry Division’s Fourth Brigade, told a council member outside the besieged building on Wednesday morning. “Maliki knows it. The Americans know it. And they’re going to keep reminding him of it.”

So, let me get this straight. 

We spend trillions of dollars on these ridiculous and unnecessary wars in the Middle East and Western Asia over the last ten years or so in order for us to set up puppet governments all over that region that deliver this in place of democracy and participative government?  We taught them that when the Prime Minister does not get his way, he simply sends in the Army?

I want my money back.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)