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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SilentZ who wrote (161183)	2/16/2003 1:57:31 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573697

Yeah, it'll begin it, but are we willing to see it through? Well, you're correct about this. With the political infighting within the United States it can definitely be a problem having a consistent foreign policy.

To: SilentZ who wrote (161183)	2/17/2003 8:53:15 AM
From: hmaly	Respond to of 1573697

Z Re...Yeah, it'll begin it, but are we willing to see it through? It will give us an opportunity to cultivate pro-United States attitudes in the Middle East, but Saddam's defeat alone won't make them love us. I don't really care if they love us, I just want to make sure their hands are so tied they can't attack us. As I have said in my earlier posts, taking over Iraq would solve a lot of the problems with Al qaeda, even if Al qaeda doesn't have a big infrastructure in Iraq yet. By deposing Saddam, because 2/3 of the people are Sunnis, or Kurds, it would be axiomatic that 2/3 would treat us a liberators. Secondly, because Saddam actively supports terrorist against Israel, a reduction in that terrorist activity would reduce tensions in the middle east. Thirdly, a big determinant to how the war is looked at by the world will be determined by just how many WMD , and just how acitive Saddams current WMD program is. If the US invades, and finds a huge cache of gas etc, then the Europeans will have to confront facts; just as Germany had to confront the ovens after WWII. Then they will realize their intelligensia would have been jepordizing their national security to whip up anti US hysteria. However without any WMD, or any proof of a current program, they will have been proven right, and will continue to distrust the US. So, a lot will depend upon what Saddam actually has in his possession.

To: SilentZ who wrote (161183)	2/17/2003 3:44:33 PM
From: Rob S.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573697

That's the problem: the U.S. views the middle east and other world problems in simplistic terms. We think if we depose a strong-arm dictator that the situation will naturally evolve into a more democratic government where human rights are upheld and differences tolerated. Forget that. "Iraq" was formulated from diverse ethnic and religious groups who have built up hatreds for thousands of years. Saddam has oppressed those rivalries ruthlessly, but as bad as he is and as in need of long term change the region may seem to be, doing away with Saddam will either unleash those rivalries or open the way for just another oppressive dictatorship to take over. Either that or the U.S. will be forced to play cop for decades. Since the Bush campaign is centered around the military-industrial, wham-bam thank you mam, get in, get out, short-sighted, brain-dead thinking, it is likely to screw more things up than it fixes. About all it is likely to "fix" if "successful" is the 2004 elections.