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But whatever your opinion on the war, your use of "colonial" is not correct: America is not setting up any "American" villiages, nor are we taking the country's resources, nor are we appointing permanent governors.
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America won't keep military bases in Iraq? Really? Wow, you must be reading a different script than I am.
The basic building block of the American empire is the military base.
America hasn't placed large military bases in neighbouring nations, after stopping by to 'help'?
Once again, I'm all for holding elections. But, if you don't think America looks like a colonial power, you aren't looking at the world from the eyes of the Iraqis.
Some of the rebels in Iraq are evil fucks. So are some Americans. Not all insurgents are evil fucks, and neither are all Americans.
The US government decided that Iraq's people would pay the price for the US government's mistakes. Right now, the US government is in what is known as a 'no win situation' -- they are indeed damned if they do and damned if they don't, as a consequence of past decisions.
There doesn't have to be a winning move. You can position yourself so you are just fucked. This isn't a game, it's the real world.
Now, possibly I'm wrong. I've said in the past, if the US managed to defeat Iraq quickly and cheaply, have the Iraqi's line the streets and throw flowers at them embracing their liberators, set up a secular democracy that acts as a beacon of progressive freedom to the rest of the Arab states, and brings about a golden age of properity and peach throughout the Middle East -- I'd even forgive Bush for Ashcroft.
That was, after all, the grand plan here.
I just didn't, and still don't, think it would work.