That was the pretext- keep up! ;-) Seriously, almost everyone, including the British, the Fench, the Italians- thought he had WMD stockpiles. I still want to know what was carted off to the Bekka Valley in Russian trucks before the war, but it seems pretty clear now that Saddam engaged in one of history's biggest bluffs. Still, he had plans for all kinds of WMDs, scientists to do the production work, and willing partners to help him (e.g. Libya and Niger), until we dethroned him.
I agree that everyone on all sides is finding it convenient to blame us for their problems. I just don't think leaving will help. Rather the opposite, I think it will invite chaos of the worst sort. The Syrians will move in, the Saudis will move in, the Iranians will move in- not to mention that Baghdad will look even more like the terrorist bar scene in Team America than it already does. In short, we see Yugoslavia all over again. In principle, I agree with you. They (Iraqi govt) need a fire in their bellies to solve their problems, not just blame each other for their current state of affairs. Interestingly, I just read on Drudge that Cheney has made a surprise trip to Baghdad to press all sides in the political conflict to make nice and reach a settlement. I don't have high hopes for him, given the lack of progress on that front so far, but maybe it will help Iraqis focus their attention on finding solutions for their problems. On 5/8/07, Dana wrote: > > Wow. Here I thought the mission was to get those WMDs. > > Seriously though. That's a somewhat better articulation of out policy > there than I have seen from the administration. It might even be kinda what > they are trying to say. > > The problem though, is that it isn't working. If you see reporting from > Iraq from Arabic speakers, it says that the various political parties find > it expedient to blame the Americans for the current mess. I am thinking > especially of a couple articles that have been in Time recently. > > Ok, well, we did break it... but until someone is willing to make actual > reality-based choices in the Iraqi govrenment, rather than just talk about > the Americans, nothing will be accomplished. > > In other words, our presence there is not helping, it is enabling > dysfunctional behavior. They like having soldiers to help keep the peace, > but find it politically safer to blame the Americans than to try to solve > difficult and emotional problems. Like what to do about ex-Basthists. > > > > >We are not going to "win" in the sense that you seem to be indicating. > That > >is not our mission. Our mission is to help the Iraqi government provide > >security and re-build infrastructure, hunt down Al Qaeda and Baathist > >dead-enders, and curtail sectarian violence. Ultimately, our mission is > to > >help the Iraqis reach a political settlement among the Shiites, Sunnis, > and > >Kurds that leads to a unified nation that can defend its own borders and > >provide security for its people. > > > >The reason we see all the talk about benchmarks for the Iraqis is that > lots > >of folks don't think the Iraqis are up to the job, and they want the US > to > >bail out if the Iraqis can't get their act together. That isn't a > realistic > >option. We need to keep at it with the Iraqis until they can figure out > how > >to reach a political settlement. It will not take forever, and we will > not > >be there forever. By all appearances, it could take several more years > due > >to the total lack of commitment by the government to getting any > >constitutional reform done. The downside of the lack of progress for us > is > >that we continue to lose soldiers and spend billions of dollars. As great > a > >price in blood and treasure as we are paying, the downside for Iraqis is > far > >greater. Iraqi citizens are losing their lives by the hundreds every week > in > >sectarian killings and terrorist bombings. None of that will change until > >they reach a political settlement, and at this point we have to stick it > out > >and push them toward a settlement or be prepared for the entire region to > >descend into war. Our best option today is to help get the Iraqis to a > >political settlement, get everyone on board supporting the government, > and > >get the government behind the idea of treating everyone equally, whether > >they were a Baathist or not. Maybe they can have a South Africa style > Truth > >commission. Whatever they do, they all have to be on board. Once that > >happens, we can start to leave, because our primary mission will have > been > >finished. > > > >We might still have people there for years doing various things, just > like > >we have people all around the world, but nothing like the footprint we > have > >today. > > > >On 5/8/07, Rick wrote: > >> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create Web Applications With ColdFusion MX7 & Flex 2. Build powerful, scalable RIAs. Free Trial http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJS Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:234217 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
