Iraq: Pre-War Planning

[AGBrina]

What is missing in all this discussion is common sense (The Thomas Paine variety).

The United States didn't have to do it! We didn't have to invade Iraq and destroy its infrastructure. But even after invading, we could have turned responsibility to govern over to the Sunni-dominated Army in the center, the Kurdistan nationalists in the North, and the Shiite-mullah Sistani in the south, AND LEFT! with the admonition that they sort it out for themselves lest someone else try to do it for them. At the same time -omnipotent and victorious as we appeared to the rest of the world- we could have warned the Iranians not to invade iraq...or else! It would hvae been a warning they would have been very keen to heed.

The assumption that this was an opportunity to reconstruct the Moslem mind, to change its culture, and create "Democracy" (the kind in which the people vote the way we want them to) is and was ridiculous. How arrogant and naive were the 'experts' in all those "think(?) tanks"!

Imperialism amd colonialism is wrong no matter what veneer of "good intentions" is used to disguise them. Rightfully, Imperialism/Colonialism is a hard thing to pull off. That's why it would have been difficult even if we had 400,000 men. If all men have the unalienable right to their own version of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then once the tyrant had been deposed, no power on earth -not even ours- should have forced the Iraqis to accept our terms for self-rule.

"You can do a lot of things with bayonets; but one thing you can't do is sit on them."