Hendrik - I don't know if you were there in RVN, but I spent my year there,
and from my perspective, we were trying to provide a safe, democratic (and
admittedly anti-communist) environment so that teachers, doctors, and
village leaders could do their jobs without being killed just because they
had some education.
As for Iraq, don't look now, but the whole area from Turkey South to the Red
Sea is full of tribal warlords, and the vast majority don't want any
meddling from us or anyone else. Good luck in changing the culture - its
been tried for over a thousand years (maybe longer?) with no lasting
success. If the people living there want an Islamic (fundamentalist or
liberal), then who are we to say that's wrong? And if tribal warlords (or
by any other name) are the problem, where do we start next? Venezuela?
North Korea? Zimbabwe? Better we think this one through first, before we
jump into more frying pans....
And what really was our "mission" in Iraq?? Seems that our government is
still trying to find words to describe that. Perhaps we should get back to
the original plan and find, capture, and bring to justice the group that was
responsible for 9/11 - and they are NOT in Iraq!
Werner
----- Original Message -----
From: "Hendrik Riessen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 7:03 PM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] OT: New Euro terror alerts
Good plan and when a hardline, fundamentalist Islamic dictatorship takes
over Iraq we'll all give ourselves a pat on the back for a job well done.
No, the power vaccum has been created and now has to be filled with
something that is reasonably decent, more importantly it has to be able to
resist future attempts at destabilisation. The problem I see is that even
if
a elected goevernment is established in Iraq and a well function police
and
military force is in place, what is to stop some tribal warlord getting
together with some military and police leaders and overthrow the
government
the day after the coalition forces leave Iraq?
The only way I see of ever solving the mess is to change the culture from
tribalism to political dialouge. This will take decades and the sooner we
face up to it the sooner we can start working towards that goal. We can't
change human nature and it's desire for power but we can build a system
strong enough to counter this.
Far as Vietnam goes, no we didn't mean well, it was a ideological
battelground which was lost because we didn't mean well. We did not give a
rats bum about the Vietnamese people, all that was worried about was
stopping the nasty communists. If Ho Chi Mhin was a right wing type
dictator, then there is a srong possibility that the west would never have
lifted a finger to help the South Vietnamese stop Ho Chi Mhin and more
likely would have been, that the west would have supported Ho Chi Minh.
