The "Indy" ( uk newspaper) peace process - uk/usa troops out fast, internationalise it, decentralise, talk to the neighbours ( yes, end all that "axis" jargon ), pay all the people in iraq a "basic income" of the roosevelt, post-depression variety, to create the iraq they might have pride in. . . .
The paying off of iraqi troops - to get them to desert in the last days of the "war" - with suitcases full of dollars was a very rotten way to commence a new era - then laying off the army without pay, but letting them keep weapons . . . . if the current , very misguided USA administration, acting against its own "elder statesmen" as much as the majority of the population, even the top brass in its own army, chooses to get apologetic about that war ( yesterday, "admitting the mistakes of having used too few troops, with too much restraint ( echoes ? ) - lots of other things present themselves.
As to the additional twists we might add to this peace process from hindsight about the Irish war - even if, as some suspect, this sunni/shia feud has got stirred up from some other quarter ( - we dont mean so called "alquida", or even "the usa" - but we do think inquiries should occur ) the fact is that feuds are a factor - so that is the place that the Irish "gritty miracles" come in - with a lot of hard work, then very different sorts of courage. But it works - despite the need for revenge, if we remember the words of some bloke in all that who talked about his, new idea of "revenge" as the sound of all our kids kids laughing together, of ways to see amends, to restore the world to a sanity we had forgotten, but never to forget the people we miss - to promise, together, then to hold each other to that promise - to stop it happening again.
The "rackets" threatened to kick the irish war into action again. Perhaps the "end" of the cold war had the same sort of effect, but with bigger scale. To discover ways to include people that seem "criminals" in a serious, effectual peace process is a bit of hindsight that needs serious thought - amnesties as such, could seem too little - ( the support to recover, as the "kid soldiers" in sierra leone have shown, is essential ) - or too much ( without a cynicism, experience or "suss" at least equal to the oldest, most bitter operators, a few people might attempt to play the endgame for loopholes, or hoard/flee leaving others in the lurch as "fall guys", etc ) . But it IS essential to include a way back into society for these people - even to recognise that that experience has perhaps allowed them some special things to put into a good future - very often the "situations chose them" a lot more than they thought, so breaking out of the "guilt/self-hate/denial/disgust at all others" cycles takes a bit, as people work out "what DID happen", etc.

Inertia is the biggest problem - but that also means the "momentum" of people playing the same old "games" - but with twists. Dubious bombings in Somalia, that chime with the timing of that"surge" speech - the moving of the date of the verdict in the ex-iraqi leaders case , , , , these sorts of "mood setting" are the sort of things that quite small bunches of "con nected" criminals, as much as regimes, might do. Cheap, nasty - but if we stay stupid, forgetting that a lot of people get "moved" by cash as much as "fundamentalism" - if it seems to them that everything they thought about the world falls away into chaos, or when the things society had told them SEEM to have got shown as lies . . . .

A bit of the "inertia" is the line that some things must remain - without excuse - but in fact - though that is the case, people are seperate from the things they have done. . . .

peace is possible.


gritty miracles work.



the "surge" is a very bad idea.




cheers to robin cook, amongst others, for "keeping it up" !