"Iraq slowly builds a stable, prosperous democracy" Thomas Raleigh

"In terms of regional security, Iraq will have taken concrete steps to redress decades of mistrust and mutual suspicion with its neighbors. Bilateral arrangements and programs will eventually have provided the basis for noteworthy multilateral initiatives. (This year, we coined the term "rock soup diplomacy" to describe this process.) We envision that in 2025, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia will implement a multilateral agreement to pursue greater transparency in military affairs. Eventually, a multi-dimensional regional security organization (perhaps a trimmer version of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) may emerge to address such common regional security issues as border security, terrorism, proliferation and refugees."  Raleigh

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A veritable Paean to Neocon Jacobinism, could it be more full throated and prophetic? Is this guy a foreign service officer?    Sooo, if everything turns out exactly as current US policy wants to to be, then we win it all!

Grand, unfortunately nothing really develops this well.  Let's hear some alternate scenarios.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/22/AR2010102206113.html

Comments

[William R. Cumming]

Well whatever the prospects of the listed condominium I suggest that the nation-states of Iran and Egypt may in fact by 2025 have weighed in postively and negatively on this prognosis. Or is it a diagnosis?

[FB Ali]

This is preposterous! Most of the article deals with what the author (and the US) wish for between now and 2025. The rest is blatant propaganda.

The writer must have been smoking something potent when he penned this.

That the WP printed it is beyond belief.

[Fred]

I've heard of rats leaving a sinking ship but someone ought to remind Mr. Raleigh that President Obama has 2 years left in his term, regardless of the pending mid-term election. It is a wonderful view of denial. If Iraqi's have so rejected 'retribution' then why haven't all the refugees returned and do we really need a brigade or so to guard the likes of Mr. Raleigh while he 'strategicly' plans in Baghdad?

"Iraq conducted parliamentary elections that international observers judged to be fair and credible." Why the international observers said the same thing about elections in Palestine, the election that Hamas won.

Did the author even read the post article on oil field contracts Iraq signed "China and a handful of other countries that weren't part of the "coalition of the willing" are poised to cash in." America's blood and treasure spent, China 'cashes in'.

Who's side is Mr. Raleigh on; or more accurately what kind of 'strategic' planning is it that spends a $1 trillion (and far too many lives) only to see the benefits go to a communist country (China realtive to oil) and a theocratic one (increased Iranian influence in Iraq and the region)?

If Iraq is going to be so prosperous in 2025 why will they still need USAID help? (and can we spend some of that money in the good ole USA, it is OUR money afterall)

[Jake]

Iran is laughing all the way to the bank.....

[Jose]

Col, when he wrote the article, Mr. Raleigh was listening to this paean.

[fasteddiez]

"And curse Sir Thomas Raleigh he's such a stupid get!"
(mini edit)

[walrus]

Headlines from 2025 (Internet Edition):

Baghdad - Tehran leg of Beijing - Beirut 600mph rail link opens. - no plans to extend to Jerusalem.

GM opens plant in Tabriz.

Karzai's Afghan restaurant chain to go public - Wall Street valuation $900 billion.

Iran Electronics PLC purchases Raytheon and L3 Systems in stock swap.

Israel labels Monaco as "Existential threat".

Mexico and Canada confer on containing illegal immigration out of America.

President Chelsea Clinton opens the Lindsay Lohan centre for performing arts.

Ten ways to cook Raccoon for your family.

TB, Polio, Dysentery, Cholera, Diptheria, Ricketts and Typhoid. Four old fashioned remedies to try on your children.

Five things you didn't know about Australia.

Education Debate: Teaching all American children to read and do arithmetic? Unnecessary expense? Wasted tax dollars? You decide!

[confusedponderer]

Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in a security bind? The folks are searching for an Ottoman empire without the Ottoman and the empire.

By 2025, the ethno-sectarian tensions deriving from the struggle for power and resources will have receded through years of patient negotiation and sustained U.S. diplomatic engagement

Ah yes, the inevitable US leadership role in that trimmed down version of the OSCE, after all, otherwise the poor unwashed masses of the orient might just follow their visceral impulses and enact anti-Israeli and pro-Iranian policies. The horror!

I gather that, if faced with such a security bind without US leadership, he would consider it a threat.

[confusedponderer]

walrus,

Education Debate: Teaching all American children to read and do arithmetic? Unnecessary expense? Wasted tax dollars? You decide!

Not even that far fetched. GOP Senate candidate Pat Toomey just proposed to extend the ~$2.5 trillion Bush tax cuts and refinance that by cutting public education spending.

To Toomey and other market worshippers, teaching children to read and do arithmetic is an unnecessary expense since education is a task that is better done by private enterprises on a for profit basis! Not to mention that a private teacher is free to teach that the earth is 6000 years old, evolution is just a very very flawed theory, that condoms don't work and that teenagers need only say no to sex, that women must not wear pants, and the like - eventually no more discrimination of true believing Christians in the school system. And indeed, education ought to be a profitably business, or a church charity, not a government monopoly! NOT!

And more, since Toomey proposed to cut the 'study abroad funding' you should perhaps have written 'Five things you don't need to know about Australia'.

[William R. Cumming]

Will Iraq become another oil petrocracy?

[William P. Fitzgerald III]

Pat Lang,

I'm sorry that Brig. Ali didn't express strong opinions on Mr. Raleigh's article. Seriously, it reads like one of those "power point" briefings with lots of verb constructions along the lines of "will have been", "should be", "may", and so forth. It is wishful thinking in the style of, "and they lived happily ever after".

My question is, why would the Washington Post have published such a thing?

WPFIII

[Clifford Kiracofe]

"guy a foreign service officer?"

Good question.

Pretty gushy for an FSO. Reads more like the disinformation Petreaus would put out.

Would the US Ambassador have to authorize this? What does it say about the Ambassador?

Would this have been authorized back in DC at the State Dept level? One would imagine State would be rather picky about what gets into the WP, NYT etc.

[Patrick Lang]

WPF3

The Meyers/Graham/Weymouth family who own and run the WP have become neocons. pl

[Castellio]

Well, I for one think it's good news that at least someone is building a prosperous, stable, democracy.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/10/11/empire

[Medicine Man]

Grim tidings: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/02/bombings-kill-shia-baghdad-al-qaida