Monday, March 18, 2013

Intelligence failures that have had a profound effect on ‘World History’



It is now agreed that Saddam Hussein had NO WMD and therefore both Bush and Blair were wrong to go to war in Iraq, and the consequences both for Iraq, USA and other parts of the world are clear for us to see. One likelihood as commented upon in the attached link is the fact that they received bad intelligence, and the sources legitimacy was in doubt. There was enough intelligence to counter their claim, but was not used correctly.


This does not detract from the fact that Saddam was a brutal dictator, who subjugated his countrymen, where he was in a minority Sunni clan that lauded over the majority Shia, for which the Sunni have yet to come to terms with their loss. Most of the killings and bombings in the post Saddam era, was not against the American occupation, but by Sunni against the Shia which my some accounts estimate the deaths at over 100,000 in the years since the end of the war.

It is also a fact that NO ONE is crying over the demise of Saddam who with his cronies wreaked havoc on his country, though one good thing was that he tried to keep religion out of politics and was able to educate male and female and not worry about fundamental Islam as a means to force compliance with religious practices as is done in other Arab states, most notably in Iran and Saudi Arabia.

When leaders make mistakes of this magnitude and commit their country’s resources and soldiers, sacrificing thousands of lives both of the invaders and also of the locals, both soldier and civilian, causing massive destruction and Human Rights Violations all in the interests of the overall objective, a cynic would say and as we here in Sri Lanka do even today, that there is one law for the HR violators in those countries, and an entirely different one for us.

Well that is simply called power. The more powerful, sway over the weak, and no matter how pompous and arrogant our leaders are, India can invade Sri Lanka if it so wishes in a matter of a week and subjugate us with NO ONE not even China coming to save our buts. Just look at the case in which the Chinese just walked in and took over Tibet, so that they can annex the vast under-populated region for their expansionist agenda.

It is wise for Sri Lanka to understand that we play the hand that we have been dealt with. Not try to play another hand pretending we are something we are not!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

good post. sri lankans, if given the reigns of a powerful nation, are excellent rationalists and debaters and could wield power very successfully, but as fate has it, we have a politically talented population but hardly any power for it to wield in world affairs, hence all of our political talents are for naught as we are treated as a rag doll by the hypocritical world powers that have not nearly as much political talent as we have, they simply have power and can do what they want.