"Setting up a strong border patrol in Iraq IMHO takes the Coalition troops OUT of danger."
LOL!!!!!
You know how many troops you'd have to park out there in the deserts to cover those vast tracts of unguarded and unmarked borders?????? The Pentagon has already rejected that idea as ridiculous and untenable.
"N.Korea has never bothered me that much."
OK... but you do realize that the minute they test a nuke, Japan will quickly produce them as well (& South Korea)... which China definitely WON'T like much.
We get another half dozen nuclear armed nations or so, and see how little influence the world's only remaining 'Super Power' has anymore....
"Sudan is a big desert, nothing there but a lot of miserable people. Yes, it could become a hideout for terrorists which we may have to face eventually."
I don't think you get the concept of what a 'war on extremism' is all about. Can you find any three year period when Saddam ever massacred 1/4 million people? (Well, OK, the Iran/Iraq War killed many more... over 8 years or so... but at the time we regarded that as in our national interests....)
"But, to change the dynamics of the world the KEY right now is Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan."
Hard to prove a contention like that. I'd argue that an independent Kurdish nation (which I support, by the way...) is going to piss off the Turks no end.
"A strong democracy there will lead to Democratization of the entire middle east."
Lovely thought, but I fear it's wishful fuzzy thinking. And, I'd argue that strong Democracies ANYWHERE in the world would be a very good thing... but there's no guarantee that they would always agree with us. Canada/France/Brazil/Germany/etc., etc., etc. don't agree all the time, for example. 'Democracy' is far more likely to result in the breakup of 'Iraq' into smaller, more representative statelets (a good thing, I believe) then it is to result in a strong, centralized 'United States of Iraq....
"We should thank Bush for being so far sighted."
Beginning to look like myopia from here. The first half Trillion dollars of borrowed money could be marked down to the nice task of toppling the Taliban, toppling Saddam, and giving the locals a fair chance at forging their own futures... but a SECOND half Trillion of borrowed money would be like pouring it down the drain. |
