"So we need another Saddam."
If we want a unified Iraq, yes. The biggest example of how stupid the neocons are is all they saw was Saddam and the fairly well-developed middle class of Iraq. They totally ignored that it was the minority Baathists who ruled in Iraq, and they were pretty abusive towards the other groups. If Saddam was removed and replaced with a more democratic government, then the Baathists immediately become a minority, and a minority that others hold a grudge against. When the invasion started, there were those on this board who questioned whether or not that the Baathists and the Sunni's would go gently into the night or rage, rage against the darkness(sorry about that). So if at least some of us could see this coming, why couldn't they?
Oh, that is right. The naysayers are trying to make s really simple problem too complex...
Any way, the mission likely was doomed from the start. Our only chance would have been to follow the initial invasion with enough military police to secure the weapons depots scattered across the country and to put a security lid on the country. Then, if we had put pragmatic people with a background in administration and management instead of a bunch who were chosen for ideology instead of competence to manage the country while we reconstructed infrastructure, restarted the oil fields and jumped started their economy, we might have pulled it off. Maybe. But, by letting chaos in the door from the beginning and then allowed it to continue as the contractors looted the country, we set Iraq on its current heading. |
