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Politics : THE WHITE HOUSE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PROLIFE who wrote (705)	2/21/2007 10:41:54 PM
From: Rock_nj	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25737

Viet Namese were pushed to such a desparate situation by the fact that the French and then Americans occupied their country for decades in the middle part of the 20th Century. We did not allow them to evolve naturally. Time has proven that even under communist rule since we left in the mid 1970s the Viet Namese were capable of sorting their own mess out (not pretty at first), as is evidence by their normalized relations with the rest of the world since the 1990s and their relatively modern society that is busy integrating with the world economy in the 21st Century. It all happened after we left and got out of their business. I am not being naive and saying there was not a lot of chaos and despair in the aftermath, but that was mainly due to the power vacum left after three decades of colonial French and American wars. It took them a while to rebound from the occupation and war that lasted for three decades and wrecked everything in their country. I think we were a net negative for the Viet Namese while we were there and the aftermath we helped create, and I think we are repeating the same mistake in Iraq. By many standards the Iraqis were far better off before we started bombing them in 1991 and continued through 2003 and now have invaded and occupied their country. Things have gone from bad to much worse due to our military actions against Iraq since 1991. Remember, part of our war strategy in 1991 was to wreck the life support systems like the power supply and water supply systems by bombing them to smitherines. That sort of war strategy winds up hurting and killing innocent people. Saddam was no saint as everyone knows, but he provided a much better standard of living and stable life than we have for the Iraqis. Baghdad had 14 hour of electricity per day on average before we invaded in 2003 and now by U.S. government estimates only has 2 to 3 hours of electricity per day. Motor fuels and heating fuels were far more available and cheaper before we invaded. There was no civil war ongoing between rival religious factions. Certainly life was less than perfect, but it is hard to argue that we have made things much better for them. A lot of measures say we have not done anything of the sort. Frankly, I'm tired of this patrionizing attitude towards Iraqis. They are grownups, let's leave their country and let them sort out their problems. I live in the U.S. not Iraq, and I am sick of hearing about Iraq. It has no bearing on my life. There is plenty in the U.S. that does have bearing on my life and is not addressed by our government that is so concerned with Iraq. What a sorry state of affairs we find ourselves in.