----- Original Message ----- From: "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2003 9:17 PM Subject: Re: Who is the sheriff?
I appreciate your sincerity in this, but I'm curious as to why you think
that while an extremely modest effort (about $40 spent per person in
Afghanistan is as much as can be done) a massive effort will work in Iraq.
It doesn't seem reasonable that a $200/per person (just under 6
billion/year) effort in Afghanistan will involve so much money the system
couldn't handle it.
I'm not sure but from all the coverage we got from within the country I didn't get the impression that the iraqi people are undeveloped. They have a great deal of oppresion from above to deal with but most of them are literate and educated rather well by our standards. Even women have the possibility to achieve a high grade of education. So I think that the state Afghanistan is in,in no way can be compared to the state Iraq is in (will be in after Hussein).
My personal belief is that Afghanistan offers a much easier test case for a
lot of things we could try in Iraq. I'll grant you that we will take more
control initially in Iraq, but having experience working in a Moslem
country should prove invaluable. So, that's my suggestion.
I rather disagree. I think that when there'll be money again and a stable government is in place (with preferable most of the current infrastructure/borders left intact by any invading ... oops sorry.... liberating ;o) forces), Iraq will be able to take care of itself without much interference from the US.
I do however think that keeping the pressure on high, while conducting further peacefull inspections is probably the best bet for improvement in the region. Then again I don't see how the US will be prevented from going for the price... oops I mean ... peace. :o)
The thing that is scary is that the Kurds are used as pawns in this powerplay. If the US isn't carefull it'll be looking at the wrong end of the barrel it supplied to (former) allies..... again.
Sonja
_______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
