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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (5685)	7/20/2003 9:25:25 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15991

What do you think about the US soldiers being killed one a day on an average. I think we're killing more of them than they are of us. Eventually, as continuing progress is made in rebuilding infrastructure, and establishing local police and judicial authority, those attacks will dissapate (or be directed at indigenous security forces). I have stated that I believe the Bush administration/DOD dropped the ball on the post-war civil affairs strategy. We were late to implement a plan at providing continuity to the police forces and vetting those officers we wanted to retain on the force. I believe we were also wrong to just permit the Iraqi army, in particular the Republican Guard, to just go home. We should have required them to surrender, be screened, and created a database of family and residences so that we would readily be able to locate them in the future, if necessary. But these are not problems that can't be resolved. And I believe that Mr. Bremer is doing a pretty good job in re-establishing some semblance of domestic order and political representation in advance of an eventual Iraqi constitutional convention and elections. With these killings, do you still continue to believe that the Iraqis hate for Saddam transcends their hate for the US? Depends on who you're referring to. Those Sunni Arabs located in the Baghdad/Faluja/Tikrit area obviously are not happy at seeing their power diluted and shared with the Shiites and Kurds. And that is where the majority of attacks have occurred over the past 100 days. If you recall, Fedayeen forces assassinated an Iraqi official who had been especially cooperative, and they targeted Iraqi police recruits, killing over a 1/2 dozen of them. While regrettable, this is to be expected, and will likely continue for a year of more (if not longer). But it is not a strategic threat to accomplishing the mission at a national level. But I do believe US forces need to be relieved of policing duties and these responsibilities turned over to Iraqis as soon as possible. US forces should be involved in protecting the border of Iraq, both from potential threats from Iran and Syria (Saudi Arabia), and hunting down any remaining insurgent leadership and infrastructure. Even Chalabi does not want the US in there any more? He probably doesn't since we didn't just "shoo" him into power in the country. He's a self-interested individual who sees the US being a barrier to his seizing power before a political infrastructure can be established that provides accountability of any government to its people. Sadr is the same way... They may be also just playing to a certain constituency in order to heighten emotions and win support.. As we've seen out here from folks like yourselves, it's easy to spout heated rhetoric when you're not responsible for providing solutions. But none of these people can rebuild that country without foreign (US) support. Chalabi might even be courting the Russians and French for international support.. And I don't see where it's right for he, or anyone else, to act as frontman for a foreign oil industry that previously supported Saddam's regime. Hawk