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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldworldnet who wrote (692669)	7/19/2005 1:48:54 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

That article explained more about the fundamental problems and challenges in Saudi Arabia then most anything I've seen posted here in a year or more. I agree with you that there 'are no simple solutions'... but that doesn't mean that simple actions won't help us achieve our national goals. (I believe that one clear weakness of the Wahabbist fundamentalist Sunnis was expressed in that article: they fear and hate Shiites EVEN MORE then 'Jews' or 'Crusaders'.) That indicates to me that they are NOT going to stop attacking the Shiites in Iraq (and whomever supports the Shiites, or stands between the Shiites and the Sunnis). The could possibly attack for centuries if this thing isn't resolved. (The Shia/Sunni split is centuries ago... but, unlike Christianity in the West, Islam never had a Reformation period. Just imagine what the West would be like if there was still a blood feud between Catholics and Protestants... and the Catholic church had no central leader, no Pope, and was just loosely governed by regional religious leaders.) A civil war in Iraq --- that, finally, partitions the peoples and clarifies the lines between the provinces --- may be the MOST NECESSARY event for speeding up the settlement of this historic, unresolved, conflict. Merely wishing that Iraq will magically turn over-night into a moderate Democracy, some kind of 'Switzerland of the Middle East' is a forlorn hope --- it AIN'T going to happen without a great bloodletting first. Iran (& the Shias of Iraq) have to pair off against Saudi Arabia/Syria (& the Sunni of Iraq & the Sunni money from various Gulf Monarchies) before a lasting peace can be achieved. Just as it takes 'two to make a war', it takes two to end a war... as long as the Sunnis are content to pour endless amounts of money (& plenty of suicide bombers) into attacking the status quo in Iraq, then there will be no peace. Either they can forment a guerilla struggle for decades or more (after all: how long has the Israeli situation been going on?), or it can be speeded up and ended in a war. One possible short-term advantage for us could be that --- if the West stays neutral in a Shiite/Sunni war --- then the two sides would be too busy attacking each other to worry much with us. At the end, both sides could be exhaused, religious extremism rejected by both populations, and the Theocratic/Autocratic leaderships in Saudi Arabia/Iran/Syria all over-thrown.