Shifting blame

There aren't too many things more repulsive in our national political dialogue than blaming the Iraqis for continued violence in their occupied country. Think Progress uses Condi as an example. But just like any other good Iraq war supporter, Rice deflected blame for the “long, hard slog” in Iraq away from the Bush administration and onto other pre-war factors. Rice said the United Nations sanctions killed Iraq’s agricultural sector and the “structural problem” of Saddam Hussein’s regime is dissuading Iraqis from making political progress: – On the continuing struggle in Iraq Rice said she thought it was more of a “structural problem.” […] The secretary warned that “authoritarian regimes are not going to create the condition for the emergence of moderate parties [in the Middle East].” – “What we didn’t know was how truly broken the society was,” she said. Although Saddam Hussein’s regime was mostly to blame for that, she said that U.N. sanctions contributed as well, because as a result of them, “agriculture is virtually dead in Iraq.” Apparently, the “shock and awe” bombing campaign had little responsibility for “breaking” Iraqi society. Don't forget our decisions to promote de-Baathification, disband the Iraqi military, and close massive amounts of state-owned industries. Sadly, as Atrios points out, Dems fall into this trap too, and it's an campaign talking point they best avoid.