Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (313189)	11/30/2006 9:46:54 AM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572510

"So we need another Saddam." If we want a unified Iraq, yes. The biggest example of how stupid the neocons are is all they saw was Saddam and the fairly well-developed middle class of Iraq. They totally ignored that it was the minority Baathists who ruled in Iraq, and they were pretty abusive towards the other groups. If Saddam was removed and replaced with a more democratic government, then the Baathists immediately become a minority, and a minority that others hold a grudge against. When the invasion started, there were those on this board who questioned whether or not that the Baathists and the Sunni's would go gently into the night or rage, rage against the darkness(sorry about that). So if at least some of us could see this coming, why couldn't they? Oh, that is right. The naysayers are trying to make s really simple problem too complex... Any way, the mission likely was doomed from the start. Our only chance would have been to follow the initial invasion with enough military police to secure the weapons depots scattered across the country and to put a security lid on the country. Then, if we had put pragmatic people with a background in administration and management instead of a bunch who were chosen for ideology instead of competence to manage the country while we reconstructed infrastructure, restarted the oil fields and jumped started their economy, we might have pulled it off. Maybe. But, by letting chaos in the door from the beginning and then allowed it to continue as the contractors looted the country, we set Iraq on its current heading.

To: Road Walker who wrote (313189)	12/4/2006 2:29:56 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572510

re: Personally, I think Balkanization is the only way things will work in Iraq. History has shown that when Balkanization is in the air, the only thing that stops it is a strong dictator and iron control. If you get them on the ground with your boot on their neck and a gun at their head, then you can hold them together. Slack just the slightest, and they are at each other's throat. So we need another Saddam ......or maybe Iraq was never meant to be one nation but rather three. The Brits aren't very good at nation building either. Tonite I was listening to some commentary from a major in Iraq. When he and his squad take Iraqi troops out on patrol......the Shia Iraqi soldiers are the most aggressive and the most ambitious when they are dealing with Sunni insurgents; the Sunni Iraqi soldiers most aggressive and ambitious when they come across Shia militia. Iraq's religious differences are even more pronounced than America's racial divisions.