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

To: one_less who wrote (188014)	6/2/2006 5:22:35 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

>> There is a National Government now in Iraq with a growing security force backed by our military. As one extremist group damages another, it could become increasingly possible for the Iraqi Government to step in Except that your "national government" is made up of all these armed groups. Just as a knife could never cut its own handle, this government can never disband the militias. It can only hope to put a uniform on them.

To: one_less who wrote (188014)	6/2/2006 9:14:29 AM
From: GST	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I think the whole world now sees the invasion of Iraq in a more realistic light. The recent surfacing of the tip of the iceberg of the true horror of sending in US troops into Iraq based on unilateral invasion and deception with no appreciation for the challenge of establishing peace and good government is now more widely understood. Send heavily armed young boys into Iraq with no understanding of the language, turn them into target practice for the terror training programs the US has inadvertently sponsored with this invasion, and the cold blooded murder of innocent civilians is all but assured. The unilateral invasion of Iraq was illegal, immoral and stupid. The price tag in dollars is enormous. The cost to the reputation of America as a country to be admired for its values is beyond measure. And the suffering brought by this invasion is sinful. We ought to be deeply ashamed of what we have allowed our government to get away with in Iraq.

To: one_less who wrote (188014)	6/2/2006 11:14:14 AM
From: cnyndwllr	Respond to of 281500

There is a National Government now in Iraq with a growing security force backed by our military. As one extremist group damages another, it could become increasingly possible for the Iraqi Government to step in provide reparations and secure pockets of previous turmoil. Indeed that approach seems to be having some success already. It's hard to believe you can accept that rhetoric. If you'd care to do a little analytical reasoning ask yourself the following series of questions and see where the answers lead you: Is the primary sectarian conflict between the Sunni and the Shiite sects? Do the Shiites outnumber the Sunnis by about a 2-1 margin? Are the US recruited, armed and trained "national security forces" and police forces OVERWHELMINGLY Shiite? Are many of the Shiite "national security forces" loyal to the various Shiite militias? When the US military recruits, trains, arms and "backs" the Shiite "national security forces," what message does that send to the Sunnis? Think about it and then ask yourself whether your conclusion that "[I]ndeed that approach seems to be having some success already" is ludicrous and may actually explain why there is such a powerful and intractable insurgency in Iraq, why there is no assurance of safety for the Sunnis arising from the "national security forces" and why our stated mission there is doomed to failure. Then maybe you can explain to me why, if we have to back anyone, we're backing the wrong sect in this conflict. Of course the Sunnis don't populate the oil lands, do they? In the end it won't matter because your "Green Zone" leaders will be overwhelmed by those Iraqi leaders who are able and willing to lead from the streets of Iraq. And those people are not our friends and our dollars won't buy their cooperation. Ed