The Israeli Option in Strategy

[JeffC]

Check this Jeff:

As stated previously, "government rules by the consent of the governed."

A true Democracy, in the sense that the original Greeks used it, would not have representatives as modern so-called Democracies do. Every citizen would vote on every law, rather than electing a representative and trusting him or her to vote on their behalf.

Jeff, it's called grass roots. Getting the basic unit of any nation to understand why it would be to their benefit to get together with other basic units to establish a government by enfranchising themselves to elect their government and establish their laws for the common good.

Doing this within a framework of longstanding Islamic traditions and ideology may well be the most daunting task is 'selling' western democratic principles.

At the grass roots level, I don't think anyone cares about the political structure of their government as long as it provides them with a better day to day existence, hope for the future, etc. "Selling" democracy reminds me of church-run Soup Kitchens in poor urban areas that sell food and religion in equal portions.

[Sean Osborne]

Sean,

You have the right idea. Someone once said "all politics is local". If you can get the Iraqis to understand and accept it at that level, the rest will fall into place.

TheCurmudgeon,

Roger. It's not something made up but has been policy in OEF/OIF for some time now. I've heard senior Army leaders and IC folks talk about this at length. The Coalition went into Iraq as liberators, not conquerors. And contrary to most pundits in the media, there was talk about what to do in Iraq after Saddam well before we killed Uday and Qusay, or captured ol' 'Aqualung" in his spidey hole. We kept track of progress by posting the playing cards on a cork bulletin board as the Ba'athist regime was decimated. I personally heard this talk while at CFLCC/CJTF-7 in Camp Doha, KU in May 2003.