You just can't bring yourself to admit it, can you people? If it had not been for Bushs insistance, Saddam Hussein and his bully boys would be torturing people in the prisons of Baghdad right now.
So what if Saddam Husseins army was third-rate? It was STILL protecting a monster and oppressing the people of Iraq. Should we have gone in man for man, tank for tank, gun for gun, and made it a "fair" fight?
Someone's been watching too many Gene Autry movies again.
The regiem had to be removed and no one else had the balls to do it. If you think it wasn't George Bush, then who did take overall command. He is the Commander-in Chief and he gave the orders. No, he didn't formulate the plan. That was left, and rightly so, to the professionals and they have done a marvelous job to date.
The situation in Iran that brought about the rise of the Ayatollas was totally different. There you had a power vacuum created when Carter withdrew support from the Shah of Iran and a revered religious figure stepped in to fill it. There was no US presence to aid in any kind of transition. Carter basically stopped US support for the Shah and then waited to see what would happen. The chances of a similar situation in Iraq or anywhere else are not very good. The Taliban were only able to grab control because they were well organized. The majority of Afghans did not and do not support their brand of Islam.
The Arabs couldn't dislike us much more than they do at present so I don't believe that the ousting of Saddam Hussein will cause any appreciable increase in that hatred. Most of the Arab world had little use for the Iraqi regeime and are not sadened that he is gone. What HAS hurt their pride is that Saddam Husseins army didn't make a better showing against the coalition. But the Arabs respect strength and Bush has showed them that he is strong.
We'll have to wait and see on that one.
Lurker, the tribal system in Iraq is not the same as what exists in Afghanistan so I don't believe that warlords will be a problem. The reason that I think that we are now in a better position to deal with the Israeli/Palestinian Arab problem is that the Arab world now sees an American President who is strong in a way that they can respect. If Bush will set limits on the Israelis with regards to how far we are willing to back them, I think the Arab States will pressure the Palestinian Arabs also. He should be able to do this since he has now established that he will do what he says.
Kendall, I agree about the economy.
kat, the world, in case you hadn't noticed, was already against us so I fail to see how this will increase the chances of terrorism. They couldn't be much more jealous or hate us much more than they do already and so what? The world now knows that hwtaever terrorists may do, we will survive and come out the stronger for it. And we WILL find them. It may take years but we will find them.
I'd rather be able to hold my head up and know that my country rid the world of a monster, even at the possible cost of more terrorist activity, than slink around with my tail between my legs, afraid to do what is right because it might upset some terrorist.
"It is better to be a live Jackel than a dead Lion. But it's even better to be a live Lion. And it's usually easier." from "The Notebooks of Lazarus Long" by Robert Heinlein

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