Insurgents Report a Split with Al Qaeda in Iraq

[TROUFION]

WM- I dont think, particularly with the readership here on SWC, that you'd have to mention that. No analogy is perfect. But to represent the idea of chaotic multi-party conflict it works. Ideologies aside. chaos is chaos.

[wm]

WM- I dont think, particularly with the readership here on SWC, that you'd have to mention that. No analogy is perfect. But to represent the idea of chaotic multi-party conflict it works. Ideologies aside. chaos is chaos.

I do no think that we cannot leave the ideologies out of the picture. They tend to be the things that produce much of the chaos. In fact, when ideologies dominate, as seemed to be the case for much of the Spanish Civil War and now seems to be the case in many discussions about military action in Southwest Asia and GWOT in general, the possibilities for rational discussion and logical argument contract rather severely.

On a constructive note, how does one explain the rather painless transition of Spain from a dictatorship under Franco to the modern democratixc state it currently represents, particularly in light of the Iberian Peninsula's history of violent change? What lessons might be learned and applied in SWA, if any?

[Culpeper]

Divide et impera. Some are all too willing to help for their own ends. In other words, ethnic and cultural freedom, clamor for power, region and money, and the rush for fighting between tribal groups. All of which contribute to the classic "divide and conquer", which was a successful policy in sub-Saharan Africa. It keeps the region from rising up against the government. It's a sort of a Catch-22 atmosphere that ends up working in favor of the ruling government.

Yossarian: Those bastards are trying to kill me.
1st Lt. Milo Minderbinder: No one is trying to kill you sweetheart. Now eat your dessert like a good boy.
Yossarian: Oh yeah? Then why are they shooting at me Milo?
Dobbs: They're shooting at everyone Yossarian.
Yossarian: And what difference does that make?
Dobbs: Look Yossarian, suppose, I mean just suppose everyone thought the same way you do.
Yossarian: Then I'd be a damn fool to think any different.