Erik, Thanks :-) I'm under a fair amount of stress at work, and have just been rather unbelievably sick (the worst experience of my entire life) so I think I snapped a little bit.
My position is almost exactly the same as yours. I think we will be fairly effective at nation-building, and will support it, like you. But even if I thought we would be catastrophically bad at it, I would _still_ support the war, on the grounds that anything at all would be better than Saddam. But I think that's a pretty small difference between our positions :-) Gautam --- Erik Reuter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Gautam, > > Thanks for the thoughtful and well-reasoned post. If > only people would > put as much thought into their replies as you do > into your posts :-) > > My position on the war is that, if I thought I could > be effective, I > would oppose the war IF I thought America and allies > would do a poor job > of post-war nation-building in Iraq. Now, I'm fairly > certain that war > protests are ineffective. For non-US citizens, when > it comes down to > it, I think their opinion doesn't really hold much > weight with the Bush > administration. As for the "peace at any cost" US > citizens, there aren't > enough to make a difference (about 10% according to > an article I read). > > So, my position (only recently arrived at) is to not > oppose the war > but instead to support post-war nation-building. In > fact, if the war > protesters were realistic, I think they would > realize that their > best chance to be effective could be to drop their > protests and > expend their efforts lobbying in favor of spending > the effort and > time and money required after the war to build Iraq > into a liberal > democracy and strong market economy. War protests > are unlikely to > prevent war. Nation-building is a more likely way to > prevent future > wars. Consider how likely we are to fight a war with > Japan or Germany? > > I've just started to think and read about post-war > nation building > in Iraq. If you have any thoughts on political > groups or other > organizations that are effective in lobbying for and > planning such a > path, please let me know. I'm looking for allies! > > > > -- > "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > http://www.erikreuter.net/ > _______________________________________________ > http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
