Unintended or honourable attempt. --[very OT]--
There are times in history when Generals and politicians must attempt
the impossible just to prove its impossible. The Dieppe raid in WW2
comes to mind. People were demanding action and something had to be done
even if it cost thousands of lives. It did but it proved the point and
resulted in the long term Quadruple strategy of:
1. Hold England and Egypt while using the size of the British Empire
to balance the Axis.
2. Wear the Germans down in battlefields of your choosing, North
Africa and Russia.
3. Keep the Russians fighting. Stalin threatened to negotiate a
separate treaty. Hence Dieppe.
4. Call in Americans. Which took too long.
Iraq was the threat. A real danger. Saddam, his sons and his party were
killing people in the worst possible way.
* Saddam was seeking WMD. Iran was seen as a greater threat in the
1970's so America under Carter was selling. After the Halabja
poison gas attack Reagan cut support. Europe and Russia continued
to supply. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wmd_iraq
* Yes some of Saddam’s people were ripping the WMD program off for
their own wealth. Swimming pools and playstations were bought or
built with diverted WMD money it seems. :-D
* In the last days of the first gulf war orders to use the WMD [gas]
or destroy it was given. Those orders were quickly acted upon.
* The orders were then contradicted when the US forces ran out of
gas south of Basra. Are you going to tell the Dictator you had
just burned his precious poison gas? The officers responsible
filled the barrels with other stuff and tried to hide their action.
* Trucks moved tons of stuff to Syria in November just before the
“alliance of the willing” attacked. Was that WMD?
* The tapes of Saddam’s cabinet meetings indicates that HE thought
that he had a lot of WMD somewhere.
* Radio intercepts indicated that the Iraqi officers thought; 'I may
not have gas but the general either side does.' Radio calls were
heard “ For Gods sake use the gas.” followed by the reply “I
thought you had the Gas, @$*%#$” Staff cars were seen racing away
from the lines minutes later.
* We used Moab’s to obliterate the last line of defence around
Baghdad. A Bomb that size can destroy a lot of chemical weapons
and there is a good chance that the remaining chem. rounds were
being kept close given the problem in the first gulf war. Moab’s
don’t leave records or witnesses.
Given all that I’m surprised we found what we found which was some
documentation on WMD and a few scattered cashes of chem. rounds.
Because the WMD could not be proven the Iraqi dissidents Iraqi
opposition group <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_opposition_group>
and Ahmed Chalabi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi> , the
major intelligence sources, were rejected as the ideal people to take
over and run an interim government. Their advice to disarm the Iraqi
army and put it to work rebuilding while they worked out who could be
trusted was ingnored. We ended up with a shai religious dominated
assembly and unemployed troops signing up with al-Qaeda or the Mahdi army.
It was Ahmed Chalabi who thought the Iraqis would welcome the Americans
and for a few weeks he was correct but with the Iraqi opposition group
side lined the USA did not know how to vet intelligence officers or how
to screen volunteers; interpreters, police recruits, etc. Miss handling
those Iraqis that volunteered to help the Americans has cost them
dearly. Note Australia has had very few casualties and we handle the
Iraqis working with us differently. I’m an Aussy if you did not know. ;-)
Yes Chalabi is up on Fraud charges in Jordan but you can’t run a
government in exile with open books, you must conceal all transactions
and if you can steal from the enemy; Go for it. We did in WW2. British
Intelligence stole millions of diamonds from Antwerp as it fell to the
Germans. The French resistance and others did equivalent frauds in
occupied Europe.
There was a time when the victor wrote the history. Today we live in an
age where the vanquished continue to wage a propaganda war after defeat.
Was it all doomed to fail? Perhaps, some have argued that democracy and
Islam are incompatible. Arguably an attempt had to be made.
Pulling out now just as we are learning how to beat the enemy would be
disastrous. Are we ready for 5 million refugees, all of those that
trusted us and now face death at the hands of whoever rises to the top.
Are we ready for a war with Turkey and Iran as Kurdistan becomes a
nation state? Arbil, capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government is the
only place in Iraq you can walk free without fear of bombs or
kidnappings. A Sunni-stan would be a haven for Al-Qaeda, the Shia
provinces would in effect become a militant Iranian puppet state.
Christians would be massacred every where but in Kurdish territory,
there the churches are growing ten times bigger.
International Law does not really allow conquers to partition countries.
It has been done and it does work. The UN has a set of rules banning it
and another outlining how to do it!?! We seem settle for the messy
process of ethic cleansing.
I don’t have a plan B. Neither does the US congress or anyone else I can
find.
I do know if Cold fusion, Steorn or some super combination of renewable
energy technologies gets us off “the Oil addiction”, there will be a
bigger mess in the middle-east but at least they will quickly go from
fighting with the best weapons money can buy to facing us with swords,
muskets and camels.
Jones Beene wrote:
Ever wonder why everything that the USA touches or attempts to do in a
particular region, seemingly tends to backfire in the worst sort of
way? Is it some kind of Crusader's curse?
Do not adjust your (sub)set... The Law of Unintended Consequences is
more than a version of Murphy's law, or even "la loi d`emmerdement
maximum" which is the more insightful Gallic version of Murphy's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unintended_consequence
Unintended consequences are often the result of laws or imposed
conditions which result in an outcome that is not at all anticipated by
the genius-politicians, Generals, "social planners," or elected
religious bigots who dreamed it up to accommodate some illogical
belief structure. Their dogma chasing my karma?
snip snippity snip
Jones
