I don't really think it would have been possible to have gotten more support for enforcing the treaty of Safwan. There was too much bribe money and too many economic interests in Europe that were profiting by trade with Iraq. At the same time Saddam Hussein had been becoming increasingly provocative. He'd even begun "lighting up" our aircraft with targeting radar and by February 2003 (a month before the war) had fired on our aircraft with both guns and missiles a couple of times. All of this, counted heavily in the Middle East toward making his claims that we were weak and indecisive and that he would ultimately win his war with us increasingly credible. Which given our attempts to secure agreements with Yemen, Muscat, Oman, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and other countries in and around the region to allow us to operate against al Qaida in those countries less and less likely, The main thing is, that regardless of how we got there, we are there, we overthrew a government and to my way of thinking it is not right at so many levels for us to leave until we have a viable government in place in Iraq. Now my personal preference is that the government of Iraq be a Federation of states with representative rule. I feel that it would be criminal for us to do anything less than to at the very least be sure that there is a viable government in Iraq. To do that, the Soldiers will need to be there until that can happen. It won't happen on any timetable (in fact I think we've rushed the job). It took time (almost 20 years) to do what we're doing for Iraq in Germany and Japan in the aftermath of WWII. The majority of Soldiers serving in Iraq see this and understand it. The fact of the matter is, that the fact that the insurgents must terrorize the people who should be sympathetic to them in order to secure their cooperation shows that they have little popular support which in turn means in terms of guerrilla warfare they're losing. Where they're winning is here in the US where if we abandon Iraq now will cause us to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-11-16 11:06 am (UTC)The main thing is, that regardless of how we got there, we are there, we overthrew a government and to my way of thinking it is not right at so many levels for us to leave until we have a viable government in place in Iraq. Now my personal preference is that the government of Iraq be a Federation of states with representative rule. I feel that it would be criminal for us to do anything less than to at the very least be sure that there is a viable government in Iraq.
To do that, the Soldiers will need to be there until that can happen. It won't happen on any timetable (in fact I think we've rushed the job). It took time (almost 20 years) to do what we're doing for Iraq in Germany and Japan in the aftermath of WWII. The majority of Soldiers serving in Iraq see this and understand it. The fact of the matter is, that the fact that the insurgents must terrorize the people who should be sympathetic to them in order to secure their cooperation shows that they have little popular support which in turn means in terms of guerrilla warfare they're losing. Where they're winning is here in the US where if we abandon Iraq now will cause us to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.