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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: Dayuhan who wrote (64570)1/6/2003 5:50:04 AM
From: LindyBill  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
I think we need to decide whether we intend to install a new government and pull out, or whether we plan an extended period of occupation under US or UN control

We are obviously going to have most of our overseas Military deployment in the ME from now on. I expect a complete drawdown from Germany. The Pentagon does not want to, they love duty in Germany. (Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.)

Various Muslim groups declared war on us from there over the last twenty years, and we ignored that fact. Not any longer. We are probably in as good a shape as we can get to participate in "After Action" Nation Building as we are going to get. About the best we can expect in Iraq is some sort of a consensus Government that allows each of the three regions to have local control, with a weak central Government. This will reflect the tribalism in the country. Afghanistan has to go the same way. Too many people here expect us to build an identical political structure to ours, and it just won't work.

One of Bush's personal problems with Foreign Policy is his devout Christianity. He allows it to color his policy making. I have just read too much about Foreign leaders who wave a cross at him and become buddies. According to Friedman, part of our problem in Lebanon was that we got too wrapped up in the Christians there who fed our vanity. Israel was so desperate for a friendly gesture in the ME that they made the same mistake. We have to tone down the "Crusader" rhetoric.
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