War, interrupted

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I'm tempted to say something snarky, but I suppose it's a good cause.

Angelina Jolie, one half of the Brangelina super-being, is in Iraq, as a U.N. goodwill ambassador, for talks with government and U.S. officials (e.g., Gen. Petraeus, pictured here) on the plight of "over two million displaced people":

There's lots of goodwill and lots of discussion but there seems to be a lot of talk at the moment and a lot of pieces that need to be put together.

Of the two million internally displaced, it's estimated 58% are under 12 years old. It's a very high number of people in a very, very vulnerable situation and a lot of young kids."

Given that she has significantly more credibility than anyone associated with the ongoing disaster that is the Iraq War and Occupation -- indeed, more even than her entire country -- perhaps she could use her mega-celebrity status to try to persuade Gen. Petraeus to face up to reality and see the war for what it is, surge included, namely, an abject failure.

Yet the problem of displaced people isn't about to go away anytime soon, war or no war, occupation or no occupation. This grossly mismanaged war may have toppled Saddam's brutal regime, but it also unleashed vicious sectarianism. Bush and the other warmongers may have talked up democracy, however unrealistically, but the real effects of their war are civil war, mass murder, and precisely the sort of instability that has produced the problem Angelina is addressing.

Petraeus can have his photo-op with the pretty lady. More talk is all there will be.