The American Spectator

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(Page 8 of 16)

In fact, the current stalemate in the Iraqi government is the fault of U.S. policy. The U.S. wanted a "unity government" with all religious factions represented, instead of a republic with the majority assuming control. By insisting on a "unity government" (what an oxymoron!), the Sunni never had to appeal to voters because they knew they would get a proportion of the power in government regardless of how many people they murdered. Instead, had the U.S. insisted on the rule of the majority, the Sunnis would have been forced to seek some Shia votes in order to gain political power.

p>There was nothing inevitable about the current situation in Iraq. The only thing inevitable was that U.S. policy would be as stupid and destructive as it has been. br> -- Roger D. McKinney br> Broken Arrow, Oklahoma /p>

The problem isn't that America invaded Iraq but they made a hopeless mess of a task that could have turned out quite well. America has had two chances in Iraq and they missed both of them by a mile -- losing one war is bad enough, but losing two really is a sign of rank incompetence. The great military commanders that America has had in the past; George C. Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower and George S. Patton must surely be groaning in their graves at the humiliation of it.

The fact of the matter is that America had a chance to win a crushing victory in 1991 with little cost -- the troops might have been in Baghdad within 48 hours, with nothing to stop them but the risk of uncooperative traffic lights and the faint hearts of their commanders. The Iraqis had no idea where the American troops were until they came to the ceasefire negotiations and saw the positions on American maps. No war fighting force in history has ever had a better opportunity to win a crushing victory than America had in 1991, but the opportunity was thrown away with complete disregard of the possibilities for the future. Sure, it would have been hard to rebuild Iraq, but no harder than rebuilding Germany and Japan after World War 2, which turned out quite well. Those who were frightened of the risks in Iraq were small men who in way can be compared with the giants who preceded them in World War 2.

p>All the failures of nerve and imagination that were apparent in the first Gulf War were repeated endlessly in the second, with an obviously inadequate force with no clear objectives, frightened of taking risks, ignoring dangers that should well have been anticipated, bound hand and foot by self imposed restrictions that benefited nobody but the enemy and looking to bolt at the first opportunity. The tragedy is not that America invaded Iraq but they tried to do so in an utterly ridiculous manner. Wars in history have never been won the way that America has tried to fight in Iraq and it is horrifying that so many people in positions of responsibility never understood this and still don't. No wonder Vladimir Putin is piling on the cold war rhetoric -- he has no reason to fear a bunch of third-rate dilettantes who never learn anything. The Iraqi mess is war by Bozo the clown, but that is not at all what the CIA warned against. They missed a golden opportunity themselves -- again. br> -- Christopher Holland br> Canberra, Australia /p>

I do not know who Mr. Reiland is, but is article is mindless. Anyone can cite whatever they want to support the thesis that the U.S. invasion of Iraq has not gone well. But the evidence is as tall as the WTC towers once were that Saddam was sponsoring terrorism around the world, was supporting al Qaeda in Iraq, was developing and even had some WMD's and, once he got around the UN sanctions (which was coming soon given the UN reliance on Blix and ElBaradei) the whole level of terrorism in the world would increase dramatically. So, he was not directly involved in the 9/11 attacks -- big deal -- he did not have to be directly involved. He could let Osama do it and bear the brunt of the retaliation -- he got the best of both worlds; or so he thought.

Besides the evidence (invasion of Kuwait, overt support of Palestinian suicide bombers, support of terrorists inside Iraq -- Abu Nidal of Achille Lauro infamy-- WMD test labs, as per Duelfer report, not the David Kay preliminary whitewash), nuclear research and development, wanton killings of thousands of his citizens per year, attempt on the life of a USA President) there is the fact that we were attacked on September 11 by a group that had declared war on us many years earlier and was and is still intent on attacking us some more.

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