Posted on 05/17/2007 6:47:18 PM PDT by jazusamo
LOL! It’s impossible for Biden to know what he’s talking about, he never shuts his mouth.
“Good points. The fact is, it’s true - even in a civil war, there is a right side and a wrong side - which side will America be on?”
So who do you choose? If you back the Sunnis, you back al Queda. And if you back the Shia, you back Iran.
That’s probably why noone wants to choose a side.
Of course not.
It can be worth picking sides if one side is hostile and the other side is friendly or at least neutral. Even if you pick the side that loses, you get to leverage the losing side's manpower to inflict major damage on the winning side. Heck, Jefferson knocked off the piracy threat from the Barbary States in part by establishing a friendly sultan in power.
It's a little more complicated. The Sunnis and al Qaeda are in temporary alliance. In the unlikely event they defeat the Shias and the Kurds, they'll duke it out for power like the PA and Hamas are doing right now. Iraqi Shias are Arabs, whereas Iranians are Persians. Think Spain and France over the centuries. Same religion, different views as to who should rule Europe.
We need to be in Iraq for decades to prevent backsliding. That was the principal mistake of WWI. Instead of occupying Germany, they allowed the rise of a hostile German government in the decades after victory. This is why we occupied Italy, West Germany and Japan for decades after WWII, for our sake, not theirs.
To this very day, the Left thinks that South Vietnamese forces WERE the bad guys and the Viet Cong were the good guys.
So true...I remember when the RATS voted to cut the funding for Vietnam, they and the traitors like Fonda were downright gleeful, it was a very sad day. I’m praying we don’t see a repeat of that.
Jonah is right
You should sign up to transport and dispose of your own garbage.
???
Surely we are fighting on the side of the elected government.
We are backing neither "the Sunnis" nor "the Shia". We are backing the elected government and the law-abiding people of Iraq against those who attack them and seek to undermine civil society.
In Iraq we are fighting the ultimate war on terror.
In Iraq we are fighting for our freedom and our way of lide.
I fully agree, jveritas. I don’t consider it a civil war but of course the RATS do.
We are fighting the ultimate war on terror in Iraq.
We’re not on a side—that’s the point. We’re in the middle.
Duh, looks like you completely missed the point. Jefferson argued for acting on American interests alone - and not caring about one side or another in any foreign conflict. Notions such as “democracy promotion” (Bush) or “humanitarian intervention” (Clinton) are not in our interests.
What’s right is in the first quote and those friendly will stand with us under the second one...
Thank you for that thoughtful post.
No problem. Your original post deserved as much in response.
Why do people say this? There is a government and we support that government against insurgents and terrorists who would seek to destabilize that government.
How in the heck is that "in the middle"?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.