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

To: Win Smith who wrote (77473)	2/25/2003 8:11:54 PM
From: frankw1900	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

The war marketing campaign has certainly tried hard to make a connection between bin Laden and Iraq. If they don't need to be connected, the marketeers shouldn't be trying to manufacture a connection, it doesn't do much for their credibility. Nah. They've made the wrong connection. It's a failure to believe citizens aren't able to think. The 911 event and the Iraq situation are partly the result of decades of bad US policy in the ME. Both Iraq and al Qaeda are things that must be dealt with. There are two totalitarian ideologies spinning around the ME: The pan-Arab nationalism of the Baathists and the islamofascism of the Wahhabists (al Qaeda the terrorist wing) and Iranian Shiites. They are the result of a reaction to modernity - or, more specifically, lack of access to it by people living there. Most regimes in the ME are anti-modern. From the point of view of the West (particularly the US) there is no practical difference between the two. For a while it was convenient - but shortsighted - to have the Iraqis fighting the Iranians but when that was over the real nature of the Hussein/Baathist ideology became apparent. There was the Gulf War as a result. It's clear as soon as the pressure is off, Hussein will start expansion efforts again. The islamofascist movement is less of an immediate threat to the ME but, like Baathism, is expansionary and inimical to modernism, Arabian or any other. They are both our enemies and enemies of most folk who live in the area. That's all the connection you need. Furthermore, they are capable of making common cause. Only through a change in Western (that is, US) policy - large, visible change - backed by vigorous action will we defeat the two enemies. Invading Iraq and destroying the regime is all part and parcel of what needs to be done. Actually, I believe most Americans get the basic idea. They've been looking at Hussein for over a decade and al Qaeda and its ilk for two years. It's not hard for many folk to see synergies in deposing the regime in Iraq and strategic campaign against islamist terrorism.