[lit-ideas] Re: Dark Thoughts on Iraq

Wednesday, September 28, 2005, 10:24:02 PM, Eric Yost wrote:

EY> Unless I also post some dark thoughts about Iraq, people will think
EY> I'm a full-time (instead of temp) swinish hack. So here goes.

EY> *Must an armed, fanatic minority can successfully impose its will on
EY> a cowed majority?

Which *Iraqi* armed fanatic minority did you have in mind?  Sunnis?
Shia militias? Armed Kurds?  How unrepresentative do you think each is
of its "constituency"'s views?

EY> *Is there anything better than the Bush plan: tough it out
EY> with an average of 2 or 3 of our men murdered every day while we 
EY> train the Iraqis to take over their own future as soon as possible?

(That's the Bush plan? is it also the Blair plan?)


EY>   What the Iraqis will make of it is anyone's guess.

make of *what*?

EY> *Will America have the political/societal will to last over the long
EY> haul? Has Binladen read us correctly there?

1. It depends on how long that long haul is 2. Bin Laden?

EY> *Will my fellow liberals prefer to have Bush fail (as Paul Stone 
EY> thinks) rather than let Iraqi freedom win?


Zzzzzzzzz definition of "fail" required here

EY> If we do prefer to see 
EY> Bush fail, won't his failure be OUR failure?

nope (and see above)

EY>  If Bush fails, why do
EY> my fellow liberals think that they live on a special reservation
EY> insulated from all the repercussions of history?

if Bush succeeds (see above) why do some people think they live on a
special reservation (etc.)?

EY> *Ralph Peters talks about a "strategic raid" strategy, punitive 
EY> expeditions for specific enemy crimes or attacks, which has a 
EY> definite 19th century British imperial feel to it.

yes it does


EY> Is this the best
EY> future strategy?

1.  that depends on what you're trying to do 2. see 1.


EY> *Will the US eventually have to revert to the fortress America type
EY> isolationism? Vichy Europe is almost gone already.


Sod off.




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