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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: Rambi who wrote (148490)11/23/2005 8:39:29 PM
From: Nadine Carroll  Read Replies (3) of 793600
 
The whole Arab politics thing----. Before the war, we completely ignored the political psychology governing Saddam, and all the cultural/political ramifications of our act, and they came back and bit us

I don't think so. You have to remember that public Arab psychology and private Arab psychology are barely on speaking terms most of the time. The only guys fighting in Iraq are Sunnis clinging to their lost cause, and Al Qaeda making a stand in the Arab heartland, trying to spark a Sunni-Shia civil war; but the Shia aren't obliging.

Before the war, the anti-war guys told us a) that we would face Stanlingrad on the Tigris with a million refugees b) Saddam would gas our troops and c) the "Arab Street" would boil over in rage. I'm glad we didn't listen to that sage advice as it was all wrong. The actual Arab Street is slowly turning against Al Qaeda because they murder Muslims, and turning towards the possibility of democracy because they always wanted it but had no hope of getting it, but now they do.

I would submit that Al Qaeda's choice of a terrorist war in Iraq was not a predetermined result of "Arab psychology" but a conscious choice on their part. Certainly the US should have been better prepared for the chance of it; but the war opponents are in no better position to say they forsaw it than the war supporters.
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