Posted on 03/12/2013 5:45:40 AM PDT by lbryce
On Feb. 26, 2003, President George W. Bush gave a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, spelling out what he saw as the link between freedom and security in the Middle East. A liberated Iraq, he said, can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region by serving as a dramatic and inspiring example
for other nations in the region.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
This article has two separate teasers to get you to read it. The one that had me follow the article was "The One Book the Bush Administration Should Have Read Before Invading Iraq" and the other, "Why Didnt the Iraq War Remake the Arab World the Way Bush Thought It Would?
There are many reasons why the Iraq War didn't remake the Arab World the way Bush thought it would.
The Arabs themselves weren't particularly gung ho about the war from the first place. The Bush Administration was overwhelmingly, woefully naive about what they were fighting for, what could go wrong, and really had no end real game plan. It was all almost as if the entire war was an afterthought. like a bunch of guys bored on a Sunday afternoon that randomly end up playing a few hoops. Basically, they didn't know what they were getting themselves into, mostly due to not knowing enough about the Arab Jihadist mindset, Arab, Muslim history, that socially they don't understand peace, are not interested in peace as if it is almost an anathema to them.
Absent a modern, thriving society, and much less a thriving economy, has them mired in the 7th Century dreaming of their glorious past desperate to have it return.
The UN puts out a yearly report on the state of the Arab Muslim world with a 2% literacy rate and except for oil, the GNP of 200 million Arabs is less than or equal to that of Holland.
Bush seemeed to have lost interest in the war (Mission:Accomplished. The lockdown Saddam had secured in keeping the myriad factions and groups under control became transformed overnight into a huge powder keg, and the prospect of Jihad provided unlimited manpower as resources for fighters and suicide bombings,increased enthusiasm that a religious war has. Lastly, the area is mostly Shi'ite (this is where Khomeini spent his days among the Shi'ite community after being exiled) and the strong support provided by Iran combined with the local Iraqi Shi'ites helped seal the war in favor of Iran.
Iraq and the other Arab countries would've fallen in line, and probably given the U.S. free oil for the next 25 years in gratitude.
What should we have done? Well, a coherent national energy policy not beholden to special interests (including the Arabs) would have been a good start. It would certainly have given us a free hand in our policy there.
After 9/11 we had to “do something.” Going into Afghanistan was a good idea, so long as it was to depose the Taliban, and kill as many terrorists based there as possible. The mistake was in staying. We should have just left them to their own devices after doling out some punishment. Oh sure, some day we would have to do it again. But staying permanently was a really bad idea.
We should have left Iraq alone.
I believe that once you decide to fight a hot war, you do it WWII style. Take no prisoners.
But in the middle east I would add a twist:
First, you wipe out all powerful physical forces.
Then you write off all adult muslims and male children over the age of ten. They all go to a separate walled off state in which they would spend their entire life. The camp would ahve no mosques but would have Christian churches.
The rest of the country would see all of its mosques ether destroyed or used for something else, maybe churches.
But everything I just posted is ridiculous, for it violates the very core principles I hold as a Christian. There is no human solution to Islam other than somehow preventing them from killing and maiming those that disagree with them. How do you do that without simply wiping out their entire culture and colonizing the area?
God will take care of it, eventually.
And the funny thing about Iran is that racially they are Arian.
I nominate you for Sec of State!
There is a reason why historians refer to the Middle East as “the graveyard of empires”.
There are no real nations there. The governments are run like ‘Mafia-style’ family cliques; a head guy and his family dominates everyone else in the local area. Sometimes a “king” evolves and can convince enough of the local ‘Mafia-style’ families to join up and form a federation of sorts. But it is a very unstable way to govern and everyone is suspicious of everyone else. These relationships shift around like wind-blown sand. Double crosses are common; so are asassinations.
The worst thing Westerners can do is try to be someone’s ally. In the Middle East that is tantamount to seeking to overthrow one of the ‘Mafia-families’, and so they always deal “dishonestly” with Westerners. Trust is definitely missing in foreign relations when dealing with Arabs.
The people there are going to have to change from the inside. They are going to have to want to change, and the primary obstruction is Islam.
Maybe not but if I had the authority I'd start with a complete deregulation of the energy industry in America. Also, there's nothing inhumane about border security and immigration quotas.
I’ve documented this in my book - describe why the whole region is unstable and why it’s going to be a national security concern for us...check the website - plus I’m not in it for the money - I count on getting the right information to The People - and let them decide their own course of action...http://babylonscovertwar.com/index.html
But in the middle east I would add a twist:
First, you wipe out all powerful physical forces. Then you write off all adult muslims and male children over the age of ten. They all go to a separate walled off state in which they would spend their entire life. The camp would ahve no mosques but would have Christian churches.
The rest of the country would see all of its mosques ether destroyed or used for something else, maybe churches.
But everything I just posted is ridiculous, for it violates the very core principles I hold as a Christian. There is no human solution to Islam other than somehow preventing them from killing and maiming those that disagree with them. How do you do that without simply wiping out their entire culture and colonizing the area?
God will take care of it, eventually.
How do we know if we are not the means God will use to handle it?
In the OT God commanded his people to utterly destroy the nations that were in the promised land. Why? So that their sins would not infect God's people. God had no problem with genocide.
We are in the middle of a religious war. Islam has commanded its followers to fight against us until the last moslem dies or the last non-moslem dies.
Eradicating islam, by whatever means necessary, up to and including nuking the entire mideast and everyone in it (with the exception of Israel of course), is not only self defense but is also defense of the innocents that islam is destroying.
I like your segregation idea, but we need to make sure that no copy of the koran exists anywhere and that no child is allowed to be instructed in it. (under penalty of death). I truly expect Jesus to come back before this can be done, but I'm not writing the idea off entirely until Jesus gets here.
Very impressive website. I perused through the pages and it seems to be a very good read. I’ve bookmarked it and will be spending time with it over the next few days. Good luck!
I was dumb enough to think that the US was delberately surrounding Iran by going into Afghanistan and then Iraq, but I guess I overestimated our government
Maybe not but if I had the authority I’d start with a complete deregulation of the energy industry in America. Also, there’s nothing inhumane about border security and immigration quotas.
How do we know if we are not the means God will use to handle it?
In the OT God commanded his people to utterly destroy the nations that were in the promised land. Why? So that their sins would not infect God’s people. God had no problem with genocide.
We are in the middle of a religious war. Islam has commanded its followers to fight against us until the last moslem dies or the last non-moslem dies.
Eradicating islam, by whatever means necessary, up to and including nuking the entire mideast and everyone in it (with the exception of Israel of course), is not only self defense but is also defense of the innocents that islam is destroying.
Frankly, the only human solution is to simply kill all muslims. And to advocate that makes one sound eerily similar to the radical muslims.
I like your segregation idea, but we need to make sure that no copy of the koran exists anywhere and that no child is allowed to be instructed in it. (under penalty of death). I truly expect Jesus to come back before this can be done, but I’m not writing the idea off entirely until Jesus gets here.
I’m not a fan of Ann Coulter, but she had it right way back when she said we should kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.
Of course, the sniveling editors at the NR canned her column because of it.
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