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

To: JohnM who wrote (98551)	5/19/2003 3:12:17 PM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Seriously, and not so seriously, John. First the latter....our 'favorite' last President coined the saying "is is is?" In this case, we might say, "is immediately immediately, and if it is, what is the definition of immediately" ???? I still am of the mind that it has only been 2 (two) months from the day we went into Iraq. There can't be ANY sane person that could think that in a country the size of CA, with power out in the Capital from unknown reasons, with 3 MAJOR religious factions to deal with, with looting (some citizens, and it appears from other Nationals coming into the country to assist in looting, and generally hinderiing wherever possible.... with our Military told NOT to shoot unless they were in danger... with medical facilities at best, a mess from the previous so called leaders, from millions from the banks missing, and being found, from tens of thousands graves of murdered people being found.... Supply lines for both the Military and civilians, and the Iraqi civilians to plan for, and receive, to protect both the Military and the Iraqi civilians, and to fend off any snipers that are still causing havoc... and ALL the etc's.... That as much has been done to date has been done. Yes, all of us would wish in the 6 weeks since April 9th that miracles were commonplace. Do have an idea that isn't (too much) tongue in cheek....Maybe much of the media who are children, and want to see things improve quickly, should go back over and help. Also, some of the Professors and other educated people on the Middle East could have a conference, and put their opinions forth.... Maybe, they might even volunteer to go over and help ....

To: JohnM who wrote (98551)	5/19/2003 3:46:03 PM
From: aladin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

JohnM, ... They promise to make life better for the Afghan population. Nope. Based on what? Coverage from a media looking for and reporting only problems? Or is it an expectation on your part that they would be a suburb of the US by now? Certainly the UN agencies involved all have axes to grind with the administration. In many cases I wonder about all of our expectations. How quickly can we build an infrastructure from scratch for a population with a very poor literacy rate? Thats the situation in Afghanistan. I think you will find lots of folks in Afghanistan who find life substantially worse or better based on their political leanings (Taliban or other), but its certainly better in the capital region and Kandahar from any perspective. But if you like religious police or beating women, its certainly gone to hell :-) As for Iraq, its hard to believe anyone can be serious about the situation yet. If I looked at Japan and Germany - we have a much better situation for electricity, water and sewer at this point post-war than we did there. (But all that proves is we bombed less). Could we do more - yes. Did we hire the wrong guy - yes. Is ORHA in need of some new people - again yes. Does that mean the post-war is a failure? No. Its similar to all the carping about the war that occurred during the fighting around Basra - a bit premature. John