--- Dave Land <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Apr 7, 2005, at 5:36 PM, Nick Arnett wrote: > > > And what about South Africa and India? Are they > not examples of regime > > changes that were accomplished without war? > Today, are we open to such > > possibilities, which seemed impossible to most > people before they > > happened? > > I don't remember our invading the Soviet Union, > either, and I seem to > recall some sort of regime change there, too. > > Dave
Yes, there was. It took 73 years, a 44-year Cold War, two wars fought by the US, one fought by the USSR, the election of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, the accession to the Papacy of John Paul II, the General Secretaryship of Mikhail Gorbachev, and the collapse of the Soviet economy (due in part to low oil prices caused by massive pumping by the Saudis, come to think of it). Eventually, Saddam Hussein would have died, and his son (who would have replaced him) would have died, and whoever replaced _him_ would probably have been less bad. Totalitarian dictatorships do _eventually_ fade, although I note that North Korea is still going strong. It takes awhile. The USSR was totalitarian from 1918 through Stalin's death in the 1950s. China was from Mao's taking power all the way to, umm, hard to say, actually, some time in the 1970s, maybe? North Korea from 1945 right up until the present day. What you are talking about is a slow and uncertain process. So yes, I guess the question could be fairly stated, the options were, leaving Iraq as a totalitarian dictatorship for an indefinite, but probably multi-generational, time in the future, or invading. Hope is not a method, as Dan occasionally tells JDG, and (in international affairs) wishing is not a policy, either. Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Personals - Better first dates. More second dates. http://personals.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
