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

To: TimF who wrote (88926)	4/1/2003 7:30:40 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi twfowler; Re: "We have about 5% of the world's population ..." Our population consists of effete SUV driving yuppies that are afraid of getting into a bar fight, much less losing their lives in some pointless war on the precise opposite side of the planet. Our military strength is due only to our technology, and that technology is useless in offense against enemy civilians. That is, while our military is extremely good at engaging and defeating enemy militaries, we have absolutely no ability to engage, defeat or pacify enemy civilian populations. This is a defect that we share with Israel, except that their problem is exacerbated by a very small population, but ameliorated by a strong will to fight (due to their conflict being in their back yard). Watch what the American public does when, by the 4th of July, commentators start talking about bringing back selective service. All of a sudden, Iraq is going to look like a pretty pointless place to carry on a land war. Re: "and one of the world's biggest (as well as the most powerful) army." This is simply far from true. Our army/military can beat the pants off of any other army/military, but it is worthless at governing civilians. By contrast, a handful of Baathist party members keeps Basra under the control of Saddam Hussein. Iraq is a tiny country 1/10th our population and is dirt poor. Our impotence should be obvious from this. Yes, yes, I know that the Baathists don't "play by the rules". Big f'ing deal. What are you gonna do about it, complain to the judges??? Ask for a penalty or a replay??? Decide that we should throw away the Geneva Convention too??? We already went into Iraq completely disregarding the desires of the UN, so there's no one to hear our complaints that the other side ain't playing fair. Even if we hadn't already shat all over the UN, the rest of the world sees us as a bully that needs a comeupance. They're cheering against us. Our plaintive weeping cries that the enemy isn't fighting fair are falling on completely deaf ears. No one gives a fig about our problems. They see us stuck in a war that was totally optional on our part. It's only a matter of time before they start more actively supporting the other side. Just like we helped Afghanistan against the USSR, (the ancient theme of David against Goliath), considerable parts of the rest of the world will assist Iraqis against us. The world is a nasty place. It is a hell of a lot bigger than we are. It is filled with people who don't really like us, who are jealous of our strength and power. They are conspiring against us even as we post here. Our public relations and diplomatic disaster is coming back to haunt us. The Bush administration's mantra of "you're either with us or against us" is broken. Forced to choose sides, the world is against us. -- Carl