Tuesday, December 13, 2005

I'm feeling inadequate today

So I'll just let Jeff Goldstein say it:

On the cusp of nationwide elections in Iraq—as insurgent Sunni Arabs eager to join the political process “actively support the voting, reportedly promising to provide security at polling places, and informing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other terrorist elements that they oppose any effort to disrupt the elections”—it strikes me that those left arguing that the insurgency is really but a manifestation of Iraqi nationalism have placed themselves in the strange position of having to maintain that, well, the real Iraqis aren’t Iraqi at all, but are rather those non-Iraqi fighters who continue the insurgency, or at the very least, that these foreign fighters (and those who provide them with aid and support) are the only ones left who are really acting in the best interests of Iraq. Which puts a whole new spin on identity politics, I should think.

Just thought I’d mention it.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

As if Iraqis want to be blown up and shot and terrorized. That is a strange kind of nationalism.