I appreciate your points, GZ, but my trouble with the analogy is that in 1938 there was "State Action" as the political scientists like to say. Nazi Germany and its ally fascist Italy represented a concerted State action to accomplish objectives which were terrible and needed to be opposed. I agree with you there - the failure of France to support the Czechs, for example, was a terrible thing and could have slowed Hitler greatly. Even earlier, when he marched into the Ruhr...he could have been stopped fairly easily. If not stopped (he was an elected leader, after all), slowed and maybe the many plots within Germany to overthrow him could have taken root.
Anyway, the closest we have now to a parallel of State Action in fighting radical Islam was (is) the taliban in Afghaistan. I have yet to find a single poster who opposed or opposes now the actions against them in Afghanistan. The concern now is that Iraq has proven such a distraction that we have lost a lot of ground in the nation that provided the State support of Bin Laden.
When you say we need to fight radical Islam, I agree. But do you feel we should take on Pakistan. They seem embroiled in supporting the Taliban and stopping us from going after Bin Landen. How about Saudi Arabia, which provded so much material support to some of the radicals? Is it Iran that you see as the state threat?
Iraq to me remains a distraction on the real war. yes, there are terrorists in country. But our efforts to referee a sectarian struggle that has nothing to do with radical islam's hate of the U.S. takes time, money and manpower away from the real fight. I don't agree with President Bush that Iraq is the correct place to fight islamic terrorists. I don't agree that because we are fighting in Iraq that it stops radical islam from fighting here (they could do both, if it suited them).
If Iraq is NOT the center on the war on terror, as I and many others believe, but a huge distraction from that fight, imagine again what half a trillion dollars could have done for border security, intelligence, and the fight in Afghanistan...not to mention so much more.
Just because a mistaken plan to invade Iraq was made, it doesn't mean we have to play the endgame for many more years to come. There are other ways to fight. And if Iraq is not the analogy to Nazi Germany in 1938, then we need to focus on what the correct analogy might be and oppose that....but in my view it is not by wasting time, money and manpower in Iraq if they won't fight and protect themselves. |
