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

To: Bilow who wrote (103382)	6/29/2003 11:31:44 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I'm stunned, stunned, to see that you're no longer parroting the "everything is great" bullshit of the administration. What ever could have woken you up? Well, I'm not stunned that you're stunned... Since I get the sense that just waking up in the morning with a clear thought would likely incite a similar feeling within you... And besides, you've apparently already made up your mind as to what I believe.. As for being a Bush "parrot", that's crap.. While I like the manner in which Bush has opted for an assertive Foreign Policy towards confronting militancy and totalitarianism in the Mid-East, that doesn't mean I have to approve of the manner in which it's achieved... I'm a pragmatist Carl... Whatever works best to achieve the mission is what I advocate within certain parameters. But if you think you were stunned by that comment, then you're downright going to have a heart attack when I tell you that Sen. Christopher Dodd made some great comments on Face the Nation this morning.. Something VERY UPSETTING that struck me, in particular, was that he claimed to have spoken with a high-level Egytian official, who told him that they still have yet to hear a request from the Bush Administration for assistance in creating a police force within Iraq. This is a TERRIBLE MISTAKE. I stated weeks ago that we need to get Arabs involved in stabilizing Iraq. I'm not keen on Saudi assistance since they have little interest in empowering Iraq, but Egypt, Morrocco, Oman, UAE, Kuwait, Turkey, etc... ALL OF THEM NEED to be called upon to provide assistance. The longer we keep this a strictly "US show", the more of a target we makes ourselves as being an colonizer, not a enabler. As for canceling local elections, I can see why Bremer would say this.. "In a postwar situation like this, if you start holding elections, the people who are rejectionists tend to win," Bremer said. "It's often the best-organized who win, and the best-organized right now are the former Baathists and to some extent the Islamists." Bremer was referring to members of Hussein's Baath Party and religiously oriented political leaders. So the question is do we take the chance of permitting these people to come back into power via an electoral process, or do we wait until other forces can be organized and empowered? If we let them take power, they still have to come to us for assistance. They become responsible for taking care of their people and become vulnerable to dis-satisfied elements who suddenly realize that they've swapped one perceived evil for an even worse one. It very similar to the de-Nazification process that took place in Germany.. If you'll recall Patton received considerable criticism for delaying the process in his sector of control. And to this day we have to ask ourselves whether the rebuilding of Germany would have occurred more quickly had some of the previous personnel infrastructure remained in place. I'm not prepared to second guess Bremer's decision at this point because he's the man on the ground making the decisions. But I suggest he expedite getting US troops away from policing, and get some other Arabs and other "proxies" in there to manage the daily security missions. US forces need to remain as the "hammer of persuasion" for those times when things look like they are getting out of control. Hawk