Quote:
Originally Posted by loquitur
I find it relevant that (according to, IIRC, a poll in the NY Times), something on the order of 62% of Iraqis don't think the Americans should be leaving so soon.
I'm a believer in "you broke it, you fix it."
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You mean:
"Let's fix it so good that it'll stand on its own after we leave," right?
That's like saying a little kid on a bicycle will stay upright on the first solo try without training wheels.
If we're going to "fix" Iraq, it'll be helping them fix themselves. Duh, I know. We're doing it to the degree we can and the degree they'll accept it.
It's messy. And expensive.
And at the end of the day they're poor people that enjoy our money and have far too many groups vying for power the second we leave.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mixedmedia
You went back and added more later. You're always doing that, lol.
1) We are talking about people dying by the hundreds of thousands and I'm not apt to be dismissive of that fact
2) I'm not talking about selling democracy or any of that horseshit and if any entity is is going to be 'selling a Great White Anything" it's apt to be 'feds and private companies' rather than the military
and 3) How can you be sure that we will be cutting any losses by leaving?
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I know; I'm sorry. I edit the hell outta my posts. It's the ADHD. That and I'm the least intelligent person posting in this thread so I have to tread water.
re1) People have been dying when we weren't there (Kurds), when we showed up ("war," insurgents), and they're gonna die when we leave (insurgents, civil unrest, etc.). You can cry for them or you can just deal with the fact that it's a shitty time for Iraq. When is it ever enough?
re2) We're always selling democracy. It's what we do. We set up puppet governments that are largely unpopular with the locals because they're not primitive thugs down with some holy scripture handed down from a make-believe supernatural being. We're McDonalds and blue jeans and they dislike us for reasons that I can't really argue with... we go sticking our obese fingers into their dirt pies whenever they do something we don't like.
re3) I know we're cutting losses by leaving. How much money do we spend every day simply transporting food and water in Iraq?