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

To: Sig who wrote (113091)	8/27/2003 6:33:25 PM
From: John Carragher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

plus india is standing by with 15,000 troops .. their gov. held them up from going unless some type of un program..

To: Sig who wrote (113091)	8/27/2003 7:26:36 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

<29 Nations providing troops in Iraq > Sure. Same thing happened in Vietnam and Korea. Lots of nations sent token forces, but those were still our wars. It is unilateral, if one nation sends 90% of the foreign soldiers, and exercises 100% control. Those "29 nations" are a fig leaf. What is needed, what has been needed all along, what I posted (before the troops went in) was a crucial element to victory, what we have nil prospects of getting, are troops (and I mean, in meaningful numbers) on our side, in the streets of Baghdad, troops of the same skin color as the locals, who speak the same language and pray to the same God. Every Arab nation we've asked for troops, has turned us down flat. Most, we haven't even bothered asking, as we know what the answer would be. The plans I've seen, for reviving the Iraqi police, are "a day late and a dollar short". Our distrust of the Iraqi police is so profound, we aren't even arming them. Supposedly, there is a shipment of pistols (pistols!), on its way by slow boat, that will eventually get to Iraq, and eventually get distributed to the Iraqi police. Meanwhile, in our area sweeps, we let each household keep a military rifle, for "personal use". Insane.

To: Sig who wrote (113091)	8/27/2003 9:53:41 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Sure, we bought off some people to play the role of flunky. The Polish government at least had the decency to say they were only in it for the oil contracts. This is a US military operation, undertaken by decisions made in the White House and nowhere else. The US controls Iraq -- lock stock and barrel -- and at this point is sticking to the policy of asking for "help" while maintaining unilateral control. So far, "help" has been extremely limited. If we drop the unilateral bullshit, we can have all the help we want and badly need.