FDtate313 at the AOL Journal Progressive Musings has done a very interesting series of posts summarizing his view of the Iraq War, beginning here. He explains how his view of the war was based on the kinds of evidence used to justify it and the preconceptions of the strategists involved. Check this out; it's good.
He also uses the comments of an incorrigible war fan who posts multiple entries in the "comments" sections, mostly of a "flame" type, as jumping-off points for some of his comments. I got a good laugh out of FDtate313's exasperated response in which he despairs of getting anything coherent out of his snapping-turtle critic: "I asked for links and you gave me a raving, profane blogger and Charles Krauthammer." That's when you know someone is really getting down to the dregs if that's all they can come up with!
I wanted to pick up on these comments in Part 5 of FDtate's Iraq series:
So what happens now? Do we continue as we are with the steady drip, drip, drip in casualties? Do we severely increase our commitment there and risk another Vietnam or a Holy War? Do we do as Kucinich suggests: just pack up and leave?
Of those three options, I believe the last is the worst. If we leave while Iraq is an unstable mess there is no hope for the region. There will be a massive power vacuum. There will be a civil war that will make the Israeli/Palestinian conflict look like a picnic. It won't just be Shia vs. Sunni vs. Kurd. It will be tribe vs. tribe.
Also, as my persistent critic notes -- it will be sending the wrong message to the Islamic terrorist group. Bloody our noses a little and we'll cut and run. That is the lesson Osama (remember him?) learned from Somalia.
(Cont. in Part 2)
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