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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Geoff Altman who wrote (2264)	11/16/2005 4:13:47 PM
From: Geoff Altman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (713205) 11/15/2005 9:13:09 AM From: Geoff Altman Respond to of 713567 "Always a temptation when you get your teeth into a good subject." It is a great subject. The issues that polarize US society usually are. "This may be why DemoLibs are hell bent on causing failure in Iraq. They know that if President Bush succeeds, it will point out the irrelevance of the anti American Democrat party and their media allies." I wouldn't go quite that far Peter but even a blind man can see there's plenty of politics going on by the democrats and that the democratic party has the most to gain if we fail in Iraq. I'm sure the, "I told you so", angle would be used to the Nth degree during the next election. "This may be why DemoLibs are hell bent on causing failure in Iraq. They know that if President Bush succeeds, it will point out the irrelevance of the anti American Democrat party and their media allies." Again, I wouldn't go quite that far Peter but the Democratic Party would definitely stand to gain if they, with the complicity of the liberal news outlets, could force the President into an early withdrawal. Unfortunately for the President, the pay off for success in Iraq most likely won't be seen by this administration nor possibly the next. "It has been that way for a couple thousand years in the whole region. The extent that evolution can cause a bifurcation of personalities in that time, it may have been done. You would have cowards and tyrannical maniacs as the dominant personalities." Here, you've taken something that I left unfocused and wordy in my original post and clarified it well. It also presents the most difficult problem we have to deal with and one that there's no one pat solution for. How do we empower the majority of Iraqis with the serf type mentality while keeping in check those that would be the next tyrant? I'll freely admit that this is over my head but would be a great topic for a white paper(there's probably plenty out there already). "The attempt to unseat Chalabi was disastrous. He cannot openly fight against us, but he will never trust America again. He will run along with us when it is convenient, but will not rely upon us for anything." I'm going to have to claim ignorance here again being that I've not been following Chalabi's career in much detail. I might point out that he, in showing that he can stand up to the US, might also be showing that he's not a US puppet. This would put him in a better light nationally and through out the mideast, (except possibly Israel of course <g>). "It is impossible to know yet, what the timeframe for Iraqi self determination is likely to be. A free Iraq can be a gleaming beacon of light for the region." That this will be a slow process I don't think anyone in their right mind could argue against. 5000 years of slavery is a large roadblock to progress. Part of implementing permanent change would be reforming the school system. That's something we've been putting effort into. IMO we will only find out if we truly won the war far in the distance I'd guess about 30 years.