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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (215643)	1/22/2005 2:33:49 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1574683

I agree with most of what you said. The U.S. should have made a lot more progress by now. It's a symptom of an administration that lays out great visions and then botches the execution. I also think that the U.S. has been trying to train soldiers as fast as they can, but the Iraqis cut and run whenever real fighting begins. That has been the biggest impediment to a U.S. withdrawal. You just don't get it. I hate to be in the position to defend this administration but here I am. Yes, their execution was horrific but that was only a part of the problem. The other part......the Iraqis were no where near ready. Its what you refuse to understand. You have to have a certain level of awareness to be ready to democratize. Most Iraqis do not have that awareness. If they did, they would make short shrift of the insurgents. The insurgency confuses them as well as frightens them. All they have ever experienced is a dictator; they don't understand what a democracy is. The insurgents are saying things are bad under a democracy...and that makes sense to the Iraqis because ever since they have been under a democracy, they have not had power, food and the other amenities of life on a regular basis. They can't even get kerosene in a country with one of the largest reserves of oil in the world. For them, democracy sucks. Look at Russia........its slipping back under a totalitarian gov't. Democracy has made the Russians very uncomfortable and unhappy. I don't think they were ready. Your vision is coming from some one, you, who has a fairly heightened awareness of what a democracy is. I don't think its shared by most Iraqis. ted