Quote Originally Posted by Dayuhan View Post
...How DC might have responded is not of course knowable.
Umm, with ignorance and arrogance???
... I see no reason to assume that was coincidence.
Nor do I. Nor do most in the ME -- it's just that their version differs radically from ours. That fact is my point in this sub thread and I wouldn't beat on it if it weren't terribly important.
It's true that the US walked into it, but the methods and conventions of diplomacy are inherently vulnerable to this kind of manipulation. I can't think of any easy or simple way to change that, certainly not without all kinds of potential for equally difficult problems.
Agree to an extent but do believe a bit less arrogance -- not terribly difficult -- and erasure of much ignorance by simply listening to people who've been there and know the culture -- also not all that difficult. It can be easily changed, all that's needed is an attitude adjustment and a realization that the sun does not rise and set in the US alone...
Certainly true, but a good deal more evident with hindsight than at the time. It's also not certain that the road not taken would have led to another place: as always, that's speculative.
In reverse order. True and not so (that's my "Not really"). A number of folks with some mid eastern experience were warning of the foolishness at the time (the entire Iraqi - Saddam - Khomeini - Iran series of fiascos over 20+ years from the mid-60s forward) but they were blithely ignored as were their predecessors with respect to SE Asia in the early 60s and their successors in the post 2000 period...

There are always unknown unknowns, etc. but a lot of our problem is not such unknowns, it is willful, blind discarding of sound advice due to domestic political considerations being accorded greater precedence in decision making. It's also partly due to such appointments as Holbrook (I was not a fan of the guy who deliberately set up the almost criminal farce that was Dayton...) and Grossman as "Special Envoys" for 'Af-Pak.' No good came of the first guy and I'll be amazed if the second does better.

All of which is tied to an extent to the fact that the ME operates on a different schedule and program to the west. Failure to accommodate or account for those differences has killed a tremendous number of people. Unnecessarily...