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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (31576)	6/21/2008 8:58:33 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224858

"Saddam was a war lord, and he was well on his way to finding truce both between the internal tribes in his country, and between his own country and his neighbours. Iran, etc. Now, with the US intervention, Iraq has been pushed back a hundred years, both in terms of sorting out it's internal power balance, and in terms of sorting out the power balance between itself and it's neighbours. Put bluntly, the US intervention has been a scandal from A to Z... and not of any help to Iraq when it comes to finding internal balance. There was some sort of balance when the US attacked. Now there is close to none."

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (31576)	6/21/2008 9:05:07 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224858

"But perhaps most important, there hasn't been the slightest move to a political settlement for which the surge was meant to buy time. The government barely exists, parliament rarely manages a quorum, and there has been no change in the fundamental issue which drives armed resistance: the foreign occupation of the country against the will of its people. The reality of the surge is this: the number of people displaced from their homes has quadrupled to over 2 million, and detention without trial has risen dramatically (the US alone holds 25,000 prisoners). Another 2 million have fled the country since the occupation began - and about 30,000 have returned, mostly because of lack of cash and visa restrictions. In oil-rich Iraq, electricity is now available in Baghdad for only eight hours a day, half the level before the invasion; unemployment is over 60%; food rations are being cut; corruption is rampant; and 43% of the population now lives on less than a dollar a day. The surge has bought time for the US but achieved nothing to prepare the way for an end to the occupation. On the contrary, Bush recently signed an agreement with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for a long-term presence in the country. On Monday, a spokesman for what is regarded as the largest Sunni-based resistance group in Iraq, the Islamic Army, rejected any cooperation with the awakening councils and pledged to "resist the US forces as long as they are in Iraq". Meanwhile, focus-group surveys carried out for Petraeus in five Iraqi cities last month found that all sectarian and ethnic groups believe the US invasion is the primary cause of violence in the country and regard the withdrawal of all occupying forces as the key to national reconciliation. Those who preach democracy for Iraq should listen to its people."

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (31576)	6/21/2008 9:09:08 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224858

"The government victories in Basra, Sadr City and Amara were essentially negotiated, so the militias are lying low but undefeated and seething with resentment. Maliki may be raising expectations among Sunnis that he cannot fulfill, and the Sunni Awakening forces in many cases are loyal to their American paymasters, not the Shiite government. Restive Iraqis want to see the government spend money to improve services. Attacks like the bombing that killed 63 people in Baghdad's Huriya neighborhood on Tuesday show that opponents can continue to inflict carnage. Perhaps most worrisome, more than five years after the American invasion that knocked Saddam Hussein from power but also set off great chaos, Iraq still lacks the formal rules to divide the power and spoils of an oil rich nation among ethnic, religious and tribal groups and unite them under one stable idea of Iraq. The improvements are fragile."