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: cnyndwllr who wrote (132637)	5/11/2004 3:44:53 PM
From: Dr. Id	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

re: Hawk you too readily agree with the statement that, I don't want Saddam back in power in Iraq. Bill Maher on Iraq April 18, 2004 COMMENTARY "New Iraq Exit Strategy: Let's Bring Back Hussein" Well, why not? He's tanned, rested and ready. By Bill Maher "April is the cruelest month, mixing memory with desire" — boy, that one holds up. The memory of Saddam Hussein's statues coming down a year ago, and now the mess that is Iraq this April. It was almost as if the Iraqis said, "All right, we'll give you a year, and then it gets ugly." I mean, I have been supportive of the noble idea of trying to plant a democracy in the Middle East. I've had no patience with people who have no patience with the long haul that is "planting seeds of democracy." Seeds don't sprout overnight; they're not magic rocks or those sea monkeys that grow in a fish tank. But it is also possible that these particular seeds will not, at this time and on this land, ever grow, no matter what we do. If that becomes painfully apparent — which could be very soon — then we need a quick exit strategy, and that's where it gets knotty. We can't just leave, because we have a bad reputation as overseas quitters already (see Afghanistan). And we can't win this militarily: I hope even the dimmest bulbs see that by now. (Bombing mosques always goes over well in that part of the world, by the way.) So what do we do? Here's an idea that I know is going to ruffle some feathers, and I agree it's not ideal, but just consider for one moment: We bring back Hussein. Let me finish … yes, he would be nasty about it, like he always is, and brag how he defeated us again, but seriously, I think we can work with him now. Rumsfeld did before. It's just a matter of them getting back the nice vibe they had in the 1980s. And honestly, he's tanned, rested and ready. He's had time to think, time to recharge his batteries. And speaking of charged batteries, no torture this time! We want Hussein the efficient administrator, not the brutal dictator. Look, he's like Don Corleone now. He's lost sons: "Look how they massacred my boy — this war stops now!" Are we all so smug that no one considers for a moment that maybe the guy gets it? He knows the job, he knows the people, he's been there. Think Joe Gibbs, and watch when the Redskins win it all this year. So we have a little egg on our face at the ceremony where two Marines have to lift Hussein's statue back up on the spot where they pulled it down. It's not like we haven't been there with him before.

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (132637)	5/11/2004 3:59:04 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 281500

If the dire warnings of the bloodbath, the economic repercussions and the haven for terrorists consequences of our "failure in Iraq," come to fruition, we may well wish Saddam Hussein was back in power. Not particularly.. Because Saddam was living on borrowed time anyway.. If we hadn't taken him out of the equation, he either would have been politically forced to have a "religious experience" and reaffirm his Islamic faith, or he would have found himself up to his neck in militants as his economy continued to stagnate and the number of children reaching adulthood increased. And the same goes for Saudi Arabia.. The only solution, IMO, was to endeavor to provide an alternative economic and political model to the entire region.. One that would accomodate the demographic pressures being faced in the region, while undermining the appeal of the militant/fundamentalist movement. I'm sorry that you can't seem to understand this.. Hawk