Fallujah: High Tide of Empire?

One reason why things worked out in both Germany and Japan is an old one: we had common enemies in the Russians (it might be worthwhile to chart Werwolf's activity against the Cold War developments of the time to see if the rise of hostility between the US and the West cut the activities of the terror group).

Bush's gamble might be more likely to work if Iraqis were scared of Soviet takeover. That would certainly make them see us in a more positive light, and we might be more inclined to put the money and effort into rebuilding, if we thought another power would take over if we didn't.

Today, as in Vietnam, we are likely to become the issue ourselves, so it's not going to be as easy to "triangulate" and appear the lesser of two evils to those who are already so ill-disposed towards us (We don't even have the French to play the tough "bad cop," as we did in 20th century Europe).

That's not to say that it's impossible to win supporters by pointing out the greater evil of al Qaeda, just that it was easier to "win hearts and minds" in Japan or Germany when the alternative was Soviet domination. With all that we have in common with Germany -- well over a quarter of Americans or so have some German ancestry -- a lot of Germans would still hate us (or may yet hate us again) if the US and Germany were considered the two powers struggling for world domination.

"Ahem, he is attacked because well-meaning conservatives think he is *wrong*."

Well that's funny, but I think a lot of "well-meaning conservatives" aren't conservative at all...just take a look at all of OUR money and lifeblood their so willing to spend to clean-up OTHER PEOPLE'S behinds.

If you understood ANYTHING about the arbitrary borders created in the ME by the English and the French, you'd know that Kuwait has less of a historical right to it's land than it's Northern neighbors do!

Besides, even if "Saddam would have had nuclear weapons and a chokehold on the worlds oil supply" does that mean were going to run around and conquer every two-bit dicktatorship that is unjust, unruly and unrepentant? What about Pakistan, North Korea, Syria, Iran and China to name a few?

Are you suggesting we start WWIII over this crap? (Seeing that you're a Neo-con in conservative clothing I bet your answer is yes).

Moreover, in response to your allegation that "we couldnt make the world economy a hostage to a genocidal maniac" I ask you this: Who gave him the weapons and do you think what OUR gov't. did in Vietnam was any different?

SHEESH

Some of you people are ready to follow the Neo-cons right over the cliff...

Good luck on your Nation Building dreams - Too bad WERE ALL gonna have to pay for them (in more ways than one).

This war is ours to win and THEN they will help us.

It appears that we also went in without orders to crush all resistance and accept collateral damage when necessary. Seeking a semi political solution is wrong and if Bush's plan is to reduce casualties until after the election, he will fail because the election is too far away and the Iraqis we are fighting know when the election is too. Unless the present approach makes the enemy careless, I fear we will have some bad consequences to this approach.

The parallel to Germany or Japan isn't so bad if it is made to only the Sunni Arabs of Iraq and not to all of Iraq.
IE: weren't convincingly 'conquered', number of troops needed to pacify, Saddam a popular leader like Hitler or Tojo...

But any of our wars in the old Spanish colonies seem most akin to what we are trying to do in Iraq, though I'm not especially familiar with those wars.

To me the oddest aspect of Iraq is trying to rehabilitate the Sunni Arabs to their fellow countrymen. I can't think of any "unite and leave" as opposed to "divide and conquer" wars, though there must be some.

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