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

To: michael97123 who wrote (161836)	5/12/2005 3:03:08 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Respond to of 281500

Not that simple. This is likely to drag on for years without clear improvement. There is a never ending supply of terrorists and the iraqi govt has if anything taken a step back after when they replaced Alawi. We don't know that at all. The Iraqi government is still a work in progress, but it is one with popular legitimacy, a novel idea in the Arab world. Furthermore, the terrorists have little popular support - every poll in Baghdad shows that about 95% of the people (this is Baghdad, so about 40% Sunni response) want to destroy the terrorists. There are dangers, sure. Al Anbar may turn into a version of the West Bank. There might be a Sunni coup d'etat. But don't let people get to you with "never-ending supply of terrorists" crap. There's a never-ending supply of splodeydopes, but the officer core is hard to replace and can be attrited. Counter insurgency wars are wars like any other. The strangest thing about this war is that one of the things Bush was ridiculed about most is turning out to be true. If we dont fight em there, we will be fighting them here. Iraq would be a huge prize for al quaeda and it seems to take precedence over the international terror agenda. All the more reason to win, then. Better there than here. For the US however, you cant just wish American impatience away. Its a fact of life. We as a people are ambivalent about most wars. Even in WW2, we had to be dragged in kicking and screaming. Recently on IMUS i heard a mea culpa from Andy Rooney for being an america firster pre-war. That's why we hire representatives like FDR and GWB to have more patience for us.