The biggest difference....

Post #91,091 by ChrisR 3/24/03 3:31:14 PM Reply	The biggest difference.... ...between Vietnam and the current situation is that there is not another superpower in the background supporting the opposition. Just as we reciprocated in Afghanistan, the Soviets more than willing to engage us vicariously. From the standpoint of Iraq, it's unlikely that anyone's going to come to Saddam's aide. But once you get rid of Saddam, there's a vacuum. The Baathist aren't going away - Syria will see to that. The Kurds and Shias will have their axe to grind. The Iranians are going to see one impediment to Persian expansion replaced by another. The Turks used to own this stuff as an empire. The Soviets and French want their business interests restored. The Saudi's aren't going to like have their monarchy undergo scrutiny.....
Post #91,101 by Brandioch 3/24/03 3:56:33 PM Reply	:) But if no one watches it on TV, does it matter? Once we take out the existing government, it will get worse, not better. Except that it won't be covered on CNN. So the average US citizen won't know about the problems. Just as they think that Afghanistan was a "success".
Post #91,115 by ChrisR 3/24/03 4:34:53 PM Reply	Afghanistan has been a good theatre for us. First, we used it to crumble the evil empire and all it cost us at the time was some lars rockets and olympic medals. More recently, we managed to overthrow the Taliban and reimplement the more historic strongman form of government - taking care to tinker with the balance between the various factions. Okay, we actually won that war before it even started by getting Musharef to side with us and hooking up with the local militia. Because the presence of American troops was minimal we did it without causing an undue resentment of American power. I think the fact that we have any semblance of goodwill left in a country we just blew the bejeevers out of, has to say that the strategy was pretty damn effective. I know from your writings, that you consider the Afghan war to be a failure. But I think the real problem with Afghanistan is that we were too dang successful. So successful in fact that we think that we can get a repeat performance in Iraq, with very little blood loss (at least from our side) and the people will love us for it. Also in our rush, we've probably opened the backdoor again for Afghanistan to return to it's state of Wild-Wild-West (or is that East). I think that one thing that people don't consider is that it really may not make a difference whether the Iraqi people hate Saddam. Even if we rid them of the evil dictator and they gain more freedom, it does not necessarily translate into goodwill. Those in the opposition may find us temporarily useful, but they will unlikely acknowledge any sacrifice in their quest - perceiving historical entanglements and self financial intents.
Post #91,123 by Brandioch 3/24/03 4:56:47 PM Reply	My problem with Afghanistan is..... Also in our rush, we've probably opened the backdoor again for Afghanistan to return to it's state of Wild-Wild-West (or is that East). I can't say it any better than that. And we do NOT look like we're going to do anything to improve the situation. I think that one thing that people don't consider is that it really may not make a difference whether the Iraqi people hate Saddam. Even if we rid them of the evil dictator and they gain more freedom, it does not necessarily translate into goodwill. Those in the opposition may find us temporarily useful, but they will unlikely acknowledge any sacrifice in their quest - perceiving historical entanglements and self financial intents. Again, I can't say it any better than that. Hate Saddam != Love USofA So we have TWO major disasters going at once. Pity whomever replaces Bush. He's leaving one HUGE mess.

Welcome to IWETHEY!