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

To: longnshort who wrote (330128)	3/23/2007 4:17:29 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576110

The questions posed by the Powell Doctrine, which should be answered affirmatively before military action, are: Is a vital national security interest threatened? Do we have a clear attainable objective? Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed? Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted? Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement? Have the consequences of our action been fully considered? Is the action supported by the American people? Do we have genuine broad international support? Iraq was pretty much the opposite of the doctrine.

To: longnshort who wrote (330128)	3/23/2007 9:38:27 PM
From: RetiredNow	Respond to of 1576110

Nope. When we went into Iraq, I was for it, like almost everyone else, because I believed there was WMD there. In fact, to this day, I believe that any WMD in Iraq was transported to Syria for safekeeping in that mile long convoy we spotted in the runup to the war. However, the real reason I was for us going into Iraq is that I believed in Bush's plan to Democratize the Middle East, starting with Iraq. I thought it was a bold move that was worth it, because Bush was trying to change the whole game and play it on his own terms. However, since then I've changed my mind. Mostly what changed my mind was Bush's and his minions' incompetence. At the start of this war, we should have used the Powell Doctrine. We didn't. At this late date, I have no confidence that anything this administration does will be successful. As a result, I want our troops home. Let Iraq and its citizens fight their own battles. If they want freedom badly enough, they'll work for it. I'm tired of American blood and treasure being spent on people who don't want freedom enough to seize it with both hands and die for it if necessary. I've also come to believe that you can't force Democracy on a people who aren't ready for it as a society. And the Middle East Muslims are definitely not ready for it. They have a lot of growing up to do. If there is one thing we learned, its that the Middle Eastern countries are not evolved enough to be able to transform to Democracy. Germany and Japan were evolved enough and they made the transition in the 1950's, but the Middle East is still stuck in the dark ages. So let them rot. Bring our troops home and let's start spending our cash on ourselves, starting with more funding for oil independence.