Posted on 10/10/2002 10:39:58 PM PDT by leftiesareloonie
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 The White House is developing a detailed plan, modeled on the postwar occupation of Japan, to install an American-led military government in Iraq if the United States topples Saddam Hussein, senior administration officials said today.
The plan also calls for war-crime trials of Iraqi leaders and a transition to an elected civilian government that could take months or years.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I can't believe that anybody in the adminstration is speaking out like this now, of all times.
Unfortunately, that means that every other liberal rag will repeat this story. European papers will trumpet it. So will Al Jazeera and "news" outlets throughout the world. Any momentum the adminstration gets from winning approval from both houses of congress will be undermined. Queasy, but supportive dems will feel betrayed. Blair will be undermined. The so-called spine of the French and the Russkies will be stiffend to dig in their heels at the UN. This may be the best, indeed the only course of action, but it's a MAJOR blunder to make this public now. I suspect that some waivering idiot in the state department leaked this story for his/her own purposes. That's how the game works in DC.
Note that they are planning a Japanese-style, multi-year occupaton with full U.S. control instead of the looser control in Afghanistan. And that is even if Saddam is first overthrown in a coup.
Did anyone think that we were just going to go in, drop a few bombs, win a quick victory and then leave?
Yes, the Arab leaders will holler about American imperialism but in secret they will be happy. It's not just Saddam that they are worried about. The Arab leaders are terrified by their own festering populations.
And no, America will not bring democracy to the middle east. America will bring stability to the fragile regimes of the middle east. The American occupation of Iraq will not be quick, easy or cheap. But it will teach the crazy rabid factions in the Arab world a lesson that they've been dying to learn: Don't mess with the US or we'll come over and hold you down until you're ready to say Uncle.
Well I take your point. But I don't think this is a very smart bit of public diplomacy. This line essentially says that Bin Laden is right about our goals. To recruit his minions all he has to do is quote your words and Bush's plans. The fragile regimes of the Middle East, as you rightly call them, are corrupt and autocratic and are mostly hated by their own people. They would gladly see them overthrown, but not by the US, not at the cost of military rule by the US for a number of years.
It's not all that simple as right & wrong/good guys & bad guys. The fragile, corrupt regimes of the mid east have been using the US as a scapegoat for the last 50 years. They have generated so much hatred over time that it would be reasonable to call those cultures "rabid."
If we back off now it only encourages the corrupt arab leaders to continue in their current path. If we back off it continues to be safe to attack America. If we back off now we invite more 9/11s. The message we send is not to the rabble who desperatly need an enemy, but to the leaders of those states: Back off, deal with your angry masses or you will face the consequences. We will have no more of it.
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