I don’t think anyone can realistically and accurately assess what will happen in Iraq down the road. How long do we stay? Indefinitely? What do we expect from this venture? What’s to prevent the freedom-loving people of Iraq from immigrating to the USA? Oh yeah. Closed border.
>>>>>We’ve been in Germany and Japan for an awful long time, but I can’t imagine what either place would be like now had we left too early. Perhaps soviet, perhaps worse, but NOT better by any stretch. IN FACT we always hear WW2 was OUR fault because we left too soon after WW1 !!!!
Again, I imagine they won’t WANT to immigrate if they feel safer at home!
But let’s suppose we walk into someone else’s life and tell them how to live it. They tell us, in so many words, to go away. But we don’t like what we hear, so we stay anyway. We’re bigger and better, after all. After so many attempts at saying, “Go away” with no result other than a more intrusive presence, there comes a response we may not like.
>>>>>I don’t get the impression most Iraqis are telling us to go away. Now once they’re secure, sure, and I’d agree that once they have control we go home, but to pull out now when they’re not even remotely ready is absurd.
Now, we can pretend the response was totally unprovoked. And that is essentially what folks are doing who blather “Blame America first” as an excuse to avoid asking what caused the response. In this case it was not a nebulous principle like “freedom”, but a physical, regulatory, culturally repulsive presence among people who ought to be allowed to determine for themselves how they want to live their lives.
>>>>>Replace al-qaeda with nazi and see if any of that makes sense to you. I can’t imagine Iraqis “wanting to live their lives that way” with average Iraqis disappearing, tortured, raped etc. Kurds, shias, sunnis...first under Saddam then targeted by al-qaeda, with Iran waiting in the wings to pounce. IF we’re too “regulatory” and “culturally repulsive”, MY GOD what would you call Saddam’s rule? I HOPE you’re not implying the Iraqis were actually comfy with that!
IN FACT you make a better argument for nazi Germany because for the most part the Gestapo came and got communists, Jews, gypsies, the handicapped etc. The average German merely turned a blind eye. So yeah, a few fanatical al-qaeda thugs can indeed terrorize an entire country! A whole continent, several continents, over half the world in fact just 60-70 years ago! It’s happened before. And to assert people ANYWHERE in the world being under thug rule see it as self-determination is also absurd.
Look at Al Qaeda’s statements. Would they lie when expressing their reason for ill will? If it is world domination by Islam they seek, it just ain’t gonna happen, Ron Paul or not.
>>>>>>You really think they’ll tell the truth? It won’t happen when people stand up to them. Wishing them away hasn’t worked, history has proven over and over that approach is the very definition of abject failure.
Also, to assert they’ll just go home, let alone somehow stay home and aren’t interested in world domination proves you’re not listening to them afterall. Let alone paying attention to Europe. Where isolationism and turning blind eyes to other’s sufferings tend to explode all over the world stage.
Thanks for the reply. Al Qaeda doesn’t even come close to Nazi in terms of strength. They are not a nationalized group. They are marginalized simply by virtue of their twisted minds; no mass appeal.
Meanwhile, it seems the normal way of life for middle eastern types is to fight among themselves. Let ‘em have at it.