Monday, September 10, 2007

Are we making it worse?

I heard very little of Gen. Patreus's comments today, but I heard a brief remark he made about the fact that at the beginning of our nation there were growing pangs and that is basically what Iraq is going through at this point. He talked about the issues with states' rights and slavery and that we needed to have discussion and at times violence. Maybe my memory is a little bit off from high school history, but I believe we had a Civil War over these issues, so this was no little bit of violence and a lot of diplomacy, quite the opposite really.

So that got me thinking, maybe we should pull out totally and see what happens. I know what the critics of this idea would say, it would be mass chaos with Iran and Syria and the other surrounding nations being pulled into a regional civil war. I am not so certain that would happen, I think that if the US pulled out, Iran, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia would have a vested interest in solving the issues that plague Iraq. None of these countries have any desire for a regional civil war especially when you look at the fact that this would upset the balance of power in their own nations, Saudi Arabia is a monarchy and who knows what happens if there is a larger war, and Iran's has a theocracy that those in power do not want upset. These nations, I believe, would intervene to ensure that Iraq's problems would not cross their borders. Right now all these countries are not going to really act because the US is involved. They have such fear and hatred toward the US that they do not want to help the US, Iran especially. They do not hate us because of our freedom as some very stupid people have tried to contend, they hate us because we are always meddling in their affairs. The West began to divide and attempt to conquer much of the Middle East after World War I and we have not stopped since.

I know there would be bloodshed and I am sure we would see a large Civil War in Iraq. There may even be some genocide, at this point we should possibly step in, although we haven't stepped into Darfur yet and that is definitely a genocide, but I think that if we make the Iraqis and the Middle East responsible for what happens in their own nations they may actually take that responsibility. It may not be the way we want the issues to be solved, but for a nation that values its own sovereignty, we need to start allowing other nations to be sovereign as well. We also need to involve the United Nations as well with possibly a small peacekeeping force in Baghdad, but maybe not. As I am writing this, I am not sure I know the answers, but too many people are dying for nothing. Oh I know why they are dying, it is for OIL, but oil is not worth the killing of people in my opinion.

2 comments:

Distributorcap said...

we are making it MUCH worse -- Patraeus did bush's dirty work today -- ask for more time

so more will die, more americans, more iraqis, more afghans, more europeans etc. ALL FOR OIL, all for bush's ego, all because we are afraid to be vocal enough to stop it

Comrade Kevin said...

I agree with you. So long as we have a presence in Iraq, we will serve as focal point for Anti-Americanism.

One fallacy of thought is that the Middle East is unified under one philosophy. As you've pointed out, the reality is far more complex. We may have created a large scale Middle East war, but I do think it's wayyy past time to cut our losses and bring our troops home.