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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: Hawkmoon who wrote (125548)	3/3/2004 2:15:23 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) of 281500

<You haven't even provided any recommendations for an alternative plan of action in Iraq, outside of setting up debating societies..> I have not suggested debating past decisions. We were wrong to invade Iraq and we did a miserable job of planning the occupation -- there is not much to debate. What I said was that cleaning house in Washington was one of the next steps in cleaning up this mess. I did not suggest debating this point. I also said that it is time to face the depth of the problems we have got ourselves into -- including the rising potential for civil and regional war. Accepting this context is one of the steps in the process of moving forward. <Who the hell do you think you are? We're now going to "play politics" with the lives of tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of potential victims who would lose their lives in such a civil war? Playing God must feel good, eh??> The minute we stepped foot into Iraq we were taking sides. We still are. We made some terrible mistakes -- backing Chalabi and believing his horse manure in the first place are near the top of the list. The political process we established is completely dysfunctional. The Shiites want power -- they are biding their time before they decide whether or not to jump full-force into civil war. That is what is at stake in the debate over elections and how and when they should occur. <If there's ANY lesson we should have drawn from our involvement in Lebanon, it was that the minute the US is credibly perceived as "taking sides", except as an advocate for an inclusive and representative government, we're in deep trouble..> We ARE perceived as taking sides -- and we ARE in deep trouble. <We should be there as a referee, through coercive means when necessary, with the only aim being assisting the Iraqis in sorting out their differences and arriving at compromise.> We are not on a peacekeeping mission -- we invaded their country and have an army of occupation based in their country. We installed a puppet government and we have been signing up deals on their oil. Pretending otherwise is not going to move us forward.

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