HVAC wrote:

So what would you have us do?

Bail? Not a good idea.

The 13 colonies in America weren't a country until after the
revolution and even
THEN they were a disparate collection of states with their own
various agendas.

It took leadership and lots of time to unite the states of America.

Don't expect Iraq to become a democratic haven overnight.

Now that Al is dead, it's time to turn up the heat and kill all his
friends.

Don't you agree Cary ?

There's a teensy weensie problem with that. Terrorist 'organizations'
are not organizations per se. Rather, it is a mindset. There is no
sign up form for Al-Qaida. You merely have to think like them and
you're a member.

A group like this does depend on leaders. Al was mainly the guy with
the loudest mouth. Shoot him, and the guy with the second-loudest
mouth appears. Nothing has been accomplished because no terrorist sees
Al's death as a blow to their organization, as it exists in their
minds.

To make a little comparison: try wiping out christianity by bombing
the Vatican, riddling Jerry Falwell with bullet holes, outlawing the
religion entirely, and burning every single bible, holy artifact, and
church on the planet.

There would still be christians then.

Same with terrorists.

In article <1150312481.405677.267530@r2g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> "HVAC" <MR.HVAC@gmail.com> writes:

"Cary Kittrell" <

The Iraqi people deserve no less than did the french, the italians,
the danes, the dutch, etc.

Those are countries.

Iraq is a "country" in name only, an chimera cobbled together
by force by the British around the turn of the last century.
It has no common history, no sense of nationhood, only three
warring factions whose only commonality is a shared history
being at one another's thoats for centuries. Nations evolve,
they cannot be created by foreign entities cramming warring
tribes into a box together.

Post-colonial Africa teaches us what happens in such situations
when the constraints are removed. Post-soviet Eastern Europe
teaches us what happens in such situations when the constraints
are removed. The ancient enemies cheerfully return to their
vendettas and their revenges and their throat-slittings.
Anyone with the slightest sense of history foresaw that
the so-called "Iraqis" would resume their tribal wars
once their constraints were removed.


You can free a nation. Iraq is not a nation, not in
any sense that counts.

So what would you have us do?

Bail? Not a good idea.

I sadly concur. We've unleased an enormous mess; we need
to stay and try to help clean it up.