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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: Clarksterh who wrote (85712)	3/24/2003 3:35:42 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (2) of 281500

> Can there not be middle ground?...what would you do? My solution will never fly in Washington. I would let the Iraqi people figure it out on their own and I would prevent others to muddle it up for them. In other words, I would create a temporarily isolated Iraq for a while until a stable foundation has been set. BTW, when I am talking about isolation, I don't mean it in its negative way. I am talking about isolation the way America was isolated while it was being formed: we make sure everyone understands they cannot invade/supply arms/wage proxy wars/etc. Initially some economic isolation may be necessary too. Then after a few years I'd revisit Iraq with more sophisticated propositions. The key here is that internal problems of a country can only be solved by its people. Saddam for example was not an Iraqi solution. CIA supported the rise of Ba'th to power and Soviets played nice to Iraq for a long time too. There are examples of how this solution has worked. The one closest to the mark is the Kurds. In the course of half a generation, they have risen from "dumb rebellious villagers" status to that of people having a constitution, a budding democracy, and under circumstances, pretty good government. Nor are they hostile to US despite our past history. I don't see why what happened with Kurds (inadvertently I may add) cannot be done within Iraq on a larger scale. This would be the solution that actually "nation builds" without any of the drawbacks. It is not going to fly in Washington however because it will not allow Iraq to become the staging ground for exporting NeoCon policies. Nor will it provide the best control of the Iraqi oil. This is the price of peace: give up some control, short term profits, and treat people with respect, and in return don't end up in perpetual crisis management mode and have a chance to reap the benefits of peace and prosperity. ST

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