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

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (129218)	4/14/2004 6:44:14 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Hawkmoon; Re: "Oh come now Bilow... All we have to do is rely upon "business interests" to overcome these criminal gangs, right?" No, as long as "criminal gangs" are running around in Iraq we can't do business there. After we leave, some local will take over the place, and bring the criminal gangs under control. Many years after that, American business will return, and will work it's slow change. Re: "We still need to pull out, right? Let the intimidated moderates be dominated by these thugs, right? Yet, your solution seems to be to leave him to his fate rather than fighting on his behalf (and hopefully empowering him to fight as well)." One of the major problems going into Iraq was aligning ourselves with the pansy side. As a military man, what can you say when the people in Iraq who are supposedly on our side keep refusing to fight for us? Even the ones we chose for the New Iraqi Army wouldn't fight. We empowered those guys, and they didn't fight. The experiment is over, it's time to pull the plug. Re: "And isn't that basically a metaphor for how you would have the US conduct it's confrontation with Islamic militants throughout the region? Just leave them to their own devices?" Your basic problem in logic is that you can only think metaphorically, LOL. If you want to be a general, you will have to understand *numbers*, not just empty slogans. You have the mind set of a junior officer, not a general. You would lead by example, not by thinking. If you'd been riding with Custer, you'd have been calling those who counseled waiting for reinforcements "cowards", and you'd have ended up slaughtered in a hopeless battle because of numbers that you truly couldn't understand. I can almost hear you now: "We've got these Indians where we want them. If we don't get them now, they're going to push us right off the map! They've been terrorizing the frontier, and you know that they still believe that they own all our land! Come on, this is our chance to stop these fiends before they turn New York City back into Indian Territory!" -- Carl