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

To: LindyBill who wrote (52748)	10/17/2002 5:27:39 PM
From: Win Smith	Respond to of 281500

"Try to install a better government there"? You haven't been keeping up with current leakage. U.S. Has a Plan to Occupy Iraq, Officials Report nytimes.com That one was previously posted by Scott, I don't think the next day's "clarification" was, though: Bush Says U.S. Won't Force Its Ways on a Beaten Iraq nytimes.com "I dispute that notion" of occupation, [Fleischer] said. Japan, he noted, "actively fought the United States" during World War II, before its postwar occupation. In Iraq in 1991, he noted, many in the Iraqi military surrendered, and he expected that would happen again. "My point is, the likelihood is much more like Afghanistan, where the people who live right now under a brutal dictator will view America as liberators, not conquerors." Mr. Fleischer's comments today were strikingly similar to the way American officials described the occupation of Japan in 1945. They also spoke of themselves as liberators, easing the way to a democratic revolution. In September 1945, the United States military distributed photographs of soldiers handing out candy to Japanese children. John Dower, in his Pultizer-winning account of the occupation of Japan, "Embracing Defeat" (1999), noted that while the Allies were technically in control of Japan, "from start to finish, the United States alone determined basic policy and exercised decisive command." In interviews today, several American officials said they expected the same would be true in Iraq, assuming the American forces are successful in toppling Mr. Hussein. "What's the choice?" one senior official said today, adding that: "It's going to take a long time to find all the weapons, and to keep the country from splitting apart. That will take a while." . . . White House officials seemed particularly unhappy today about the report, in The New York Times this morning, that the occupation would be led by a commander whose role would be parallel to that of General MacArthur, who ruled Japan essentially as a potentate who could issue directives on any subject. But others said that the fractious country would require such a strong presence. "Japan wasn't about to fall apart," one senior State Department official said today. "Iraq might well fall apart." In one respect, an American-led force in Iraq would resemble the occupation in Japan: It would include a major "demilitarization" program, similar to the one in which the United States destroyed Japanese armaments, administration officials said. Chalabi shows up in there too. Anyway, I don't know why, exactly, you expect the Iraqis to embrace Perle's "lily-pad" scheme as something that somehow has their interests at heart.

To: LindyBill who wrote (52748)	10/17/2002 5:36:15 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi LindyBill; Re: "You must be working on the premise that if we take out Saddam, and try to install a better Gov there, the average Iraqi will hate us for this and want to engage in guerilla warfare against us." No, they'll hate us for killing their friends and relatives, LOL. They really won't be any more interested in the theoretical explanations for why we're doing it than Americans are interested in the explanations for why the WTC was attacked. This is the nature of human nature. -- Carl P.S. I suppose your position is that after we've starved the Iraqis for 10 years, killed or wounded many of their soldiers, left them in fear of constant air attacks for a decade, "accidentally" killed many thousands of their civilians, and finally invaded their country with a few hundred thousand well armed soldiers, they're going to love and respect us.

To: LindyBill who wrote (52748)	10/20/2003 11:24:22 PM
From: Sam	Respond to of 281500

lindybill@whatareyousmoking.com to Bilow: [Note: the quote below was written on Oct 17 2002, a year ago] You must be working on the premise that if we take out Saddam, and try to install a better Gov there, the average Iraqi will hate us for this and want to engage in guerilla warfare against us. Nobody that I have read, right or left, is predicting this kind of Scenario. You obviously have a different view of Iraq than everyone else. Just wondering how long will this "low level" conflict have to continue for you to believe that Carl was right? Or is there no amount of time?