Comments on: Stop Saying That Iraqis Must Take Care Of Their Problems.

By: david

david — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:35:16 +0000

Spike – There won’t be an American defeat. Period. If and when we leave, we will blame it on the Iraqis and their unwillingness to help us. We will still “win” if you want to call it that, and all the corporate interests over there will also win.

By: Spike

Spike — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:43:01 +0000

On the contrary, what this country needs is defeat and humiliation in Iraq. The best way to dissuade future administrations from this sort of opportunistic adventurism is for the United States to be thoroughly humiliated and discredited, most importantly at home, but also abroad. This will in effect save thousands of lives by forestalling this sort of behavior in the future. It’s called “The Vietnam Syndrome”, the unwillingness to support agression against those unlucky enough to live in the rest of the world, and it is a GOOD thing. What we do in the Third World is mostly evil, exploitative and wrong, and our defeat will give our victims some respite. We are no longer “The Last Best Hope of Mankind”, and have not been for a while. I realize that the United States is too powerful to be thoroughly defeated, but even 20 years of inhibition will save countless lives. Losing wars can be a very good thing for nations; we don’t worry about the Germans or Japanese anymore, do we? I know there are good aspects to our foreign policy, but it is mostly tainted by considerations of self-interest, and it does not outweigh, in my opinion, the harm we do. The important thing is to have a defeat that sours America on further agression and not a defeat that provokes fantasies of revenge against “stabs in the back” and the like. That is why the current situation is desirable: a slow, grinding descent into futility, untainted by delusions of nobilty in defeat. It’s for our own (and the rest of the world’s) good, believe me. We have done enough harm, we cannot salvage the situation, only make it worse, the best thing we can hope for is defeat.

By: david

david — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:24:55 +0000

I agree Krishna, there are other issues there.

By: Krishna Asundi

Krishna Asundi — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:21:37 +0000

The issue is the Iraqi’s do have problems that we didn’t create. The three groups are putting the welfare of thier sect, tribe and family above that of the state. This means no compromise can be found for the division of natural resources and continued distrust and killing of people from “another” group. Of course this is all stuff that should have been thought of before the invasion (which i think was a complete mistake/lie) But I think unless we are willing to act like Saddam Hussein and brutally suppress the violence (yeah, I know this sounds like an oxymoron), we are not doing any good being there.