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

To: Dennis O'Bell who wrote (87622)	3/29/2003 9:09:45 AM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

"In one debate I watched, there was an interesting exchange - an Iraqi was asking why the Arab world has never done anything to help the Iraqis, and an Egyptian replied "if you don't like Hussein, why didn't you overthrow him ?"" How cavalier on the egyptians part. Totalitarian regimes are almost impossible to dislodge(hitler, stalin, NK, Mao, etc.) and that assumes the population hasnt bought into the ideology at some level. I do not buy that real iraqis on the ground wont ultimatlely welcome the removal of saddam and the american effort even if there are never "flowers". We will have to even more skilled in handling the peace than i thought we would. I am sure the peace will be punctuated by terrorist attacks. Mike

To: Dennis O'Bell who wrote (87622)	3/29/2003 9:27:34 AM
From: quehubo	Respond to of 281500

I doubt many people who are familiar with the oppressive regime Saddam has maintained are surprised by the level of the resistance. Perhaps many well informed were overly optimistic, but the present sobering reality should not be much of a surprise. I dont know what % of the population is part of the oppressive regime and what % of that know they have absolutely no chance of surviving when Saddam falls. But it is quite clear that some of the oppressors will fight to death and some will take their chances when they think they stand a better chance running from or turning on the oppressors who will fight to the end. The saddest thing I see is that the oppressors have great leverage over large % of the oppressed population and the oppressed are in an inadequate position too take a reasonable chance to turn the tables on the oppressors and survive. Some of the oppressed are being used as human shields or are being forced to send their teenage son to fight tanks with AK47's. I would expect at some point the risks of fighting the oppressors with be less than the risks of being forced to fight the coalition.

To: Dennis O'Bell who wrote (87622)	3/29/2003 10:12:18 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I saw something on the news about Bush leading a prayer vigil or something... if we want to convince Muslims that it's a holy war clash of civilizations, that's the way to do it. Talk about tone deafness.... Eh, the Muslims will be convinced of that no matter what Bush does. It springs naturally from their entire world-view. Bush has no intention of hiding his Christianity under a rock like it was an embarrassment (the prevailing European attitude, as far as I can see). Good for him, I say.