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

To: one_less who wrote (218865)	2/16/2007 5:19:03 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

After reading your post I have to ask, do you see the struggle going on in Iraq as one between the forces of moderation and radicals? If so you've swallowed too much of the Bush drug. The men fighting for power in Iraq are not moderates. There may no longer be any recognizable moderate block in Iraq. It is radicals versus radicals, Shiites versus Sunnis, Kurds for Kurds and sect versus sect. A moderate majority of Iraqis willing to fight and die for moderation in Iraq was a pipe dream. That's what the experts were trying to tell our feckless leader before he stepped in the quicksand but he was a guy who "knew men's hearts," and, like you, believed naively that freedom was a "God given" or "natural" right of men and that given freedom men "would not attack their neighbors." So my view is that you've posted idealistic, unrealistic "hopes" that can only be clung to if you fully ignore what reality is telling you. Your inability to flesh out even the barest details of a course of action that might lead to your idyllic Iraq attests to that lack of reality based thinking. And our soldiers are dying there. Ed

To: one_less who wrote (218865)	2/19/2007 8:11:19 PM
From: Don Hurst	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

>>" As I mentioned earlier, Iraqis know who they are. So it is Iraqis who must distinguish between those who would strive for a common goal vs those who would seek dominance as a subgroup. Some stability must be obtained so that Iraqis themselves can make a decision where they stand. There is still quite a bit of personal vascillation because they aren't sure they would be safe under the new government. We can facilitate this by using our military to make it as safe as possible for Iraqis to distinguish and isolate the oppositional forces. The option of agreeable particians is also within the realm of consideration to achieve this same outcome. Then, we continue to bolster the Iraqi security forces so that the need for our military support is gradually reduced. In the mean time the Iraqi culture has to be invitational toward those who've been marginalized by the conflicts so that there are realistic venues to build a stable and inclusive community. "<< Terrific!!...great "smack".