Hawk..welcome to the real world. After reading your last series of posts I'm amazed at the change in your positions. As I recall, when the Iraqi adventure started you were in the "if we build it they will come" camp of Pollyanna-like Bush thinkers. I don't read that in your posts anymore.
You write:
<< There is no military solution to this.. I think few people ever thought that their was a military solution. But the military action in overthrowing Saddam set loose the machinery necessary for people to be free to make their own decisions.
A power vacuum was created, and there is no doubt that certain leaders failed to consider the fact that Iraq has been run like a huge mafia gang with bosses, and underbosses, and people willing to kill, and steal for the shoes on your feet..>>
In other posts you speculated that Saddam would have also had to deal with the religious extremists within a few years. Of course he was dealing with them already-remember all the outrage we had at the number of people he was killing? (By the way, are we killing some of those same people now?) But of course because he was an Iraqi, spoke the language and had decades to implant his institutions and infrastructure, he was much better prepared to identify and combat that element in his society and, if he could not have, then maybe it is destined for that region of the earth to learn what the Iranians had begun to learn so well, i.e. the best cure for people that think they want to live, or can tolerate living, in a radical, intolerantly ruled, religious theocracy is......living in an intolerant, religious theocracy.
But, of course, if you try to use power to prevent them from doing so their desire to have what they think they want will grow even stronger.
I think we should have taken a lesson from history and allowed that region of the world to make its own choices and find its own path. I think that was the least dangerous and wisest way to deal with the wave of extremism that's killing our soldiers and bankrupting our treasury.
You evidently disagree, stating that the admittedly "Dr. No," world dominance views of the most radical among them creates a major threat. You warn of the consequences; "if we sat on our @sses until the entire region had fallen under the control of Islamic Militants, fueled by oil profits and an ideology that wants to refight, and win, the Battle of Poitiers.."
Your argument, however, fails on two fronts. First, our efforts are NOT impeding their goal of radicalizing and uniting the Muslim world, on the contrary our efforts ARE radicalizing the Muslim world and, as side benefits, are teaching them how to fight our conventional force, creating battle hardened leaders among them and creating power vacuums that they are all too prepared to fill.
The second failure of your argument is that an empowered militant government is probably less dangerous to Americans than an amorphous, hidden and non-targetable group of (-your choice here-) terrorists, insurgents, religious fighters, freedom fighters or thugs. After all, when they come out of the shadows and actually have something to do and something to lose, they become the Khadafy's and Saddam's of the world, and they and their people can be held hostage to the conventional military power that we have.
You are overly optimistic on yet another aspect of the war in Iraq. You offer a ray of hope for a successful outcome writing; "we [need to] train their officers to understand that they serve their government, not themselves. And we [need to] train their enlisted soldiers to be professional and take pride in their profession, and disdaining the corruption of previous governments. That's going to take some time."
But how do you "train" people to share your values? What force can we exert to "train" that, what incentives can we offer to "train" that, what is it that can make a separate and ancient society change it's views on tolerance, governance, women's rights, ethics, religious values, etc., etc.? The answer is "nothing within our abilities." We can't even "train" most of those soldiers to want to fight and die for the system of government that our own soldiers are purportedly over there fighting and dying for. Simply put, if you have to "train" them into that then you WILL NEVER WIN.
On a personal note, I admire you for taking the risks of being there and putting your body where your mouth is. I don't know if your work required that you go, but I do know that it takes courage to live in a place where violent death might find you. Good luck. Ed |
