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

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (18930)	4/1/2008 4:44:01 PM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25737

Your list is interesting...but everything on it belies the fact that the nation (if you can call it that) is non-functioning. Yes, I suppose it "functions" on the basic levels because billions upon billions of U.S. dollars have bought some inter-tribal peace while proping up the institutions you cite. If the U.S. were gone tomorrow, would 90% of what you list be able to function a month later? Or would it begin to fall under its own weight of ideological disagreement and mistrust? When you note the existence of police units and counterterrorism units being created, please do so with a grain of salt. These very units have evidenced the problems of infiltraiton and divided loyalities that has made it difficult for the government to actually govern with the will of the people. Just look at Basra. The message in that powergrab is clear. The same thing has happened in the north, albeit more quietly. We buy off the Sunni for now, but we can't do that forever. So, will the engine turnover on its own and begin to show an independent, self-sustaining nation? I don't believe so. We have "turned so many corners" in Iraq you would think we were getting where we were supposed to be by now...