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

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (124650)	2/12/2004 11:28:21 AM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Who wins and who loses in the mideast if the US succeeds in establishing a democratic Iraq? The US has no conceivable interest in civil strife in Iraq. The syntax of my previous post was bad, I most definitely did NOT intend for a moment to imply that the US was trying to start a civil war in Iraq. The question is, rather, will we be able to prevent one? Obviously, I think the odds are against us, though anything is possible. I can certainly think of several countries who had millions of reasons to do just that [give Saddam a completely free hand]. And take one guess which would have been the only country left trying to impose the restraints? I don't think France or Germany or anyone else could have or would even have wanted to create a situation anytime soon in which Saddam would have a completely free, uninspected hand. And the US wouldn't have been "the only country" in favor continued monitoring. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this hypothetical. He said that the jihadists are going to have a 'hearts and minds' problem of their own, once the police they are blowing up are related by blood to the people whose sympathies they are trying to win. They (whoever "they" are) are already blowing up Iraqis. Everyone there knows the score--you throw your lot in with the Americans, you become a target for whoever "they" are. You throw your lot in with "them," you become a target for the Americans. Time will indeed tell. The pattern right now seems to be, fewer attacks but deadlier, and with more AQ fingerprints. We can certainly agree on this: time will tell.