Active duty, 19 years, and many of my co-workers are in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I can understand my getting out after 14 years, but I can't understand getting out after 19, when you only had one more year until retirement..
But oh well...
Your moral crusading has failed every time it ran counter to nationalist sentiment and greater will.
Well, the Islamists would tend to disagree with you.. They seem to be making some pretty good headway..
As for a middle class and democracy, you cannot have the latter without the former, at least as an elite influence group (India comes to mind).
Sounds like a chicken/egg scenario.. You HAVE to have democratic reforms in order to for a middle class to develop.. They have to have the right to property, conduct commerce, and enjoy legal protections under the law..
What you must be referring to is democracy for the powerful elite mercantilists, protected and firewalled by bureaucrats and a maze of government offices aimed at preventing the masses from enjoying the same economic and legal benefits.
The very same problem that Argentina, Chile, Egypt, and China are facing right now...
This process can't begin without instituting some systemic shock that forces such changes throughout the region..
And if we fail to accomplish that in Iraq, what motivation will other regimes have to implement such policies? They will just continue to plunder their countries natural resources, extracting the wealth and transferring it to their Swiss bank accounts. And when the Islamists become to powerful to defeat, they will beat a hasty retreat to their riviera seaside homes and live off the proceeds of their ill-gotten gain..
And now you say that because we created an existential crisis in Iraq, it is now imperitive to commit ourselves to the continuance of this travesty "for as long as it takes."
Sure thing... Just "bug out" and let the Wahhabist, Salafists, and Shiite militants fight it out for eventual power in the region.. Nice solution h0db..
"The decision to turn to former Iraqi army generals to help regain control of Fallujah, for instance, took place under confusing circumstances, with military officials in Iraq announcing terms that officials in Washington had yet to review.
Well Myers came on the talk shows today and stating that Saleh will probably not be the one who eventually leads that Fallujah brigade.. Not quite sure where the disconnect is coming from between the JCS and the Conway, but someone is probably being required to do a lot of explaining right about now...
I certainly didn't like seeing Saleh show up in his SRG uniform.. But I do believe that we need to find an Iraqi leader who is both sufficiently respected, but also relatively clean enough, to take over responsibility for policing Fallujah (and every other Iraqi city)..
Because it is, after all, their country.
But there might be one more angle to look at.. Lead the insurgents into a false sense of security, find out who they are, and then come back and deal with them in a different, more discreet manner...
The architects of this disaster should resign, or be fired--if not by Bush, than by the voters in November.
Well, the last time I checked, we don't have the ability to fire Kofi Annan.. Or even Jacques Chirac or Vladimir Putin..
And I guess this means you don't believe in enforcing any of the very limited numer of binding UNSC resolutions in the future..
So we might as well just withdraw from the UN, right?
Hawk |
