Iraq: "A war of imperial conquest gone bad"

By Diane Silver

Former Los Angeles Times Baghdad Bureau Chief Borzou Daragahi says he doubts the surge will work. His comments in an upcoming C-Span interview paint a portrait of a disastrous war.

(W)hat it’s turned into in the eyes of many people in the Middle East is a war of imperial conquest gone bad, done poorly. At least the Romans granted their captives citizenship and brought them into the fold and brought stability to the lands that they conquered.

And I think, in the Arab world – and this is a really disastrous thing, they basically view this is as, you know, the Americans came in and they destroyed an Arab country. And I don’t think they’ll ever forgive us for that...

Iraqis are rather hostile and feel humiliated. And that's the key thing that maybe some of our policymakers don't understand. The presence of the U.S. soldiers is very humiliating to the Iraqis. "

Once again: Think about how you would feel if a foreign country invaded the United States and occupied, oh, say Kansas or New York of Ohio for four years. Would you want to be occupied?