Our motives are pure? Did I say that? Our motives are economic (oil) and ideological (democracy and plurality v. extremist Islamism). A regional war starting in Iraq could disrupt half of the world's oil supply and bring several countries under the sway of Al-Qaeda. That is exactly Al-Qaeda's stated strategy and exactly what we must oppose.
In Afghanistan, we have denied Al-Qaeda a safe haven from which to train and operate. It would be great to do more to help Afghanistan rebuild, and it would be even better if we could help the Pakistanis eliminate Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Unfortunately, with limited resources, we have to prioritize our objectives. In economic terms, re-building Iraq's oil industry benefits the world economy. Rebuilding the rest of the country is part of the deal. Rebuilding Afghanistan doesn't do anything in the short term to benefit the world economy, unless you like opium. Ideologically, defeating Al-Qaeda in Iraq and giving the Iraqis a chance at a democratic, pluralistic society, is a tremendous win for democracy and freedom and a terrible blow to Al-Qaeda's ambitions of a worlwide Islamic state. Guiding Afghanistan toward democracy and freedom is good, but not as critical to defeating Al-Qaeda's strategic interests as success in Iraq. On 9/13/07, Dana wrote: > > ok -- I've been trying to stay out of this. Don't have time. But I > really have to ask. Why are we interested in helping Iraq rebuild > then, if rebuilding Afghanistan is not urgent? > > See, even if a personchooses not to dispute the rest of what you say > -- and it's kinda hard, mind you -- that policy fundamentally makes no > sense. If as you say our motives are pure. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Check out the new features and enhancements in the latest product release - download the "What's New PDF" now http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/coldfusion/cf8_beta_whatsnew_052907.pdf Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:242409 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
