Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (128437)	4/4/2004 11:39:36 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Hawkmoon; Re: "Carl, the only [thing] I'm sure about is that if we pursue your approach of doing nothing in the region ..." My approach really isn't "nothing". My approach is to pull back, and let our business interests take care of business. When tempers calm, the Iraqis will see us as a useful tool to balance against other foreign interests and the situation will improve. The problem with your approach is that it isn't working. Where's the confidence you once exuded? Now all you can say is "the only I'm sure about". Re: "And to be more specific, Sadr's group is different animal that Al-Sistani's. When I see Sadr being able to effectively subvert or undermine the overall authority of Al-Sistani's power base amongst the Shiites, then they'll be far more evidence of your concerns." So far, Al-Sistani has refused to even meet with coalition authorities. It's only a matter of time before he sends his militia after us too. And the actions of Sadr's militia will attract hotheads from Al-Sistani over to his side. Your only consistent policy on Iraq has been that we have to be there. The WMDs are gone, the hoped for pacification is gone, the vaunted Iraqi police can't even keep order in Baghdad, the hopes that the Shiites wouldn't kill us is gone. What do you have left? All you have left is slim hopes and that you're "sure" that my approach won't work. Well we're going to find out how my approach will work because Bush is slowly being forced to take it. And why are you so sure that my approach won't work? How many people knew enough about the Iraqis to tell you that they were going to shoot us up? How many people told you (before the war) that resistance is common in quick maneuver wars and that resistances usually take a half-year or so to rise up? How many people told you that Iraq had no WMDs? As far as being a realist on Iraq, your reputation is shot. Do you want me to remind you of what you said about WMDs before the war? About what you said the UN would do after they were bombed? About what you said about the Shiites? How many things do you have to screw up before you clue in to the concept that you don't understand what the situation in Iraq is? Do you think I'm just lucky and am going to screw up real soon and you're going to start being right? Re: "But suffice it to say, this constant second guessing, by people like yourself, of the worthiness and necessity of our mission in Iraq and the rest of the mid-east to create positive and progressive change, is far more worrysome than anything I'm currently seeing in Iraq." So you think that Bilow is more of a danger than the situation in Iraq??? You can't admit that Iraq was a mistake, but now you sense that the war (the one you were so happy to see start and so sure of victory in) is going to turn into a fiasco. So what's your response? That's right, try to shoot the messenger. Fat chance. This war was your idea, not mine. What kind of patriot are you to be blaming Americans for the fact that your stupid idea didn't work? Do you care more about how you feel about your capability to understand military situations then you care about the lives of American soldiers? Admit your error and try to figure out what next. Re: "Because frankly I'm sick of ..." Frankly, I'm sick of a loser that blames other people for his own stupid decision. Be a man and take the blame. You're like the officer who orders his men to make an impossible attack, and then, when it fails, he blames the survivors who told him that it couldn't be done. The officer sits back (thinking of his career), and threatens his brave soldiers with court martial. What a loser. Be a man and admit that you had a hand in what is going on now in Iraq. To suggest that I hate this country (when it was YOU who made the sad miscalculation about the nature of Iraqi civilians and the United States military) is the accusation of a coward who can't admit his own errors. -- Carl