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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (27635)	4/28/2002 10:13:14 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

You don't get the point. Every single solitary military person that has ever been killed or wounded in any war that has ever been fought had civilian friends and relatives. No.. you apparently don't get the point (or maybe neither of us get the point.. :0). Sure.. every member of the military has a connection to a "non-combatant" family.. How else were we able to justify area bombing of German, Japanese cities during WWII as well as N. Vietnamese cities during Vietnam.. But you know something... The Vietnamese were dying "literally" to flee that nation for the US, even after we killed their sons and daughters, both on the battlefield and in our bombing raids. And the US, Germany, and Japan, have very friendly relations (despite our intermittent "spats"). The point you need to get is that the US MUST take the ideological, as well as military, offensive in the Mid-East and Iraq is crucial to the success of that strategy. Turkey's economy has been severely impacted by the closing of Iraqi oil pipelines through their country. A regime change in Iraq would alleviate the economic pressure in that nation. A regime change in Iraq will likely provide the impetus, if not a base of operations, for reformists in Iran to effect a regime change in that nation. A regime change in Iraq will send a powerful message to Saudi Arabia that the US will not be held hostage to the oil weapon, nor to their support of radical Islamists. It may even set the stage for a return of the Hashemite Caliphate on the Arabian Peninsula under King Abdullah of Jordan. This would provide a "friendlier" ally in control over Arabia, with the religious dossier to reshape the Islamic attitude in the region, by undermining the Wahhabi control over the holy sites. And hopefully access to this oil revenue will provide the economic and financial foundation for PROPER economic reforms and distribution. It will secure our energy supplies, as well as ending (or severely limiting) the extreme corruption in SA and other oil producing nations. But most of all, it will put the Islamists on the defensive... So yeah... some soldiers are going to die (as well as some civilians. But they have been dying for decades under the oppressive rule of Saddam and his thugs. They will be dying tomorrow, one by one, until Saddam is overthrown. So don't underestimate the level of resentment that exists in Iraq (despite today's "birthday rallies" in Baghdad). There were an estimated 20,000 Iraqis killed during Desert Storm... And their families know it was because of Saddam's disastrous aggression that these soldiers perished. They may be oppressed, but they aren't stupid (at least not those who would seek to replace Saddam). Hawk