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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Enigma who wrote (20977)	4/25/2003 8:46:43 PM
From: Thomas M.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93284

<<< So why exactly is Iran is further along than Iraq in the democratic ferment department? Jesse Walker has a good theory: One major difference between Iran and Iraq: U.S. sanctions against Iran are much less severe than the ones against Iraq. Except in the Kurds' northern zone, the sanctions rendered Iraq's citizens more dependent on Saddam's government, and thus — perversely — helped crush the independent institutions needed for a real revolution. The end result was symbolized when Saddam's statue came down. In Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, jubilant crowds tore down the hated dictatorships' statues themselves. In Iraq, a much smaller crowd needed Uncle Sam's tanks. This is the argument I've been making all along: We should have eased the sanctions on the civilian economy and patiently cultivated an Iraqi democracy movement without risking U.S. soldiers or killing Iraqi civilians. Instead of that sensible approach, U.S. policy actively prevented the Iraqi people from organizing against Saddam and repeatedly sold out rebel movements in order to keep Iraq "stable" under the dictator's iron rule. Then, in an urgent, inexplicable rush, Bush and Cheney had the unbelievable hubris to decide unilaterally that it was time to "liberate" the Iraqi people from the very dictator the U.S. had been propping up for decades. Bush ignored Iraqi resistance groups who asked for assistance to overthrow Saddam on their own, trashed international law, disrespected the people he claimed to be saving, killed soldiers and civilians unnecessarily and practically dared international terrorists to attack us again. His stupid, wasteful, arrogant strategy is a complete mess - a mess the rest of us will be cleaning up for years to come. Over in Iran, a young, moderate majority is this close to getting rid of the fundamentalist Ayatollahs who are trying to rule them with an iron fist. It's madness to think that what the Iranian pro-democracy majority needs most right now is an oh-so-righteous invasion of U.S. soldiers. And you know what? The same was true of Iraq. >>> monkeytime.org usatoday.com