<What if Iraqis want the USA to be overall boss, but Iraq has their own elections and runs their own affairs>
Those two outcomes are mutually contradictory. If the U.S. is "overall boss", then the Iraqis aren't "running their own affairs". Choose. Finessing this is self-deception.
<Put your signs, banners and protests away until the Iraqis have had a referendum.>
The Brits held a referendum in Iraq after WW1, to legitimize their conquest. The Soviets regularly held elections and referendums in their Empire, to legitimize their conquests of the Hungarians, Poles, etc. Nobody but the credulous is fooled by referendums held under the guns of a foreign army of occupation.
The middle east could be amazing within 10 years. A vast West Bank. Or a patchwork of U.S. client states, barely keeping their Streets down, by the regular application of liberal (sic) amounts of Force (like Egypt today). Or a patchwork of Islamic states, virulently anti-American, barely keeping their Streets down by Force (like Iran today). Or chaos (like Afghanistan today).Or some mixture of those. But prosperity and peace, no, that's not where the region is headed. Not now, not next year, not in 10 years. Maybe 20 years. |
