PB, I quite agree that if outside agents [such as China in the case of Korea and I suppose the USSR would have helped too] support local opposition [as the USA supported Osama in opposing the USSR], then the situation would be impossible [or at least probably not worthwhile].
But which country is going to support some opposition? Saddam would of course try but that might precipitate something he doesn't like. Important countries like China, Russia, Pakistan and other neighbouring countries are unlikely to want to see mayhem over the fence and coming through the fence.
Korea isn't a reasonable comparison. Similarly with Vietnam where North Vietnam was proxy agent for USSR and China to defeat the USA and allies.
<Perhaps if treated with some respect they might show a better side?>
I think showing Osama some respect is not the answer. Hitler, Saddam and their ilk don't respond to respect. They are totalitarians who enjoy unbridled power and the suffering of those they subjugate.
Whose interest would be served by funding one of the warlords to attack a multinational occupation force while self-government is organized? Would they have the wherewithal to create significant opposition? I don't see how.
Thanks for the link to MoscowTimes.com. Scary stuff: <So says the great Oval Object in his latest executive order, in which he grants himself the power to have anyone he designates as a terrorist to be tried by secret military tribunals and executed without appeal. Bush's dread edict -- which of course takes effect without any input from that useless appendage of a bygone era, the U.S. Congress -- covers anyone who "causes, threatens to cause" or even "has as their aim" to cause "adverse effects" on, among other things, the American economy or U.S. foreign policy.
As always, Bush alone retains the right to decide who is and who is not a terrorist, just as he alone decides what constitutes an "adverse effect" on the United States. Could be a bomb, a boycott, a protest, a tariff -- or the wrong beer: it's his call....>
Mqurice |
