[lit-ideas] Re: Dark Thoughts on Iraq
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 19:49:02 -0400
> [Original Message]
> From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 9/29/2005 5:58:04 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Dark Thoughts on Iraq
>
> Eric: It's a lose-lose game for the Americans: we get trashed as
> "world policemen" .... but on the other hand, nobody else has the
> capacity or political will to take over.
>
> Judy: .... Anyway, look, no-one made the US do this.
>
> Eric: Thought experiment. Assume Bush lost the 2000 election, Gore
> was president, and 9/11 never happened. Wouldn't Iraq still be a
> mounting problem?
>
> For instance, US and UK would still be enforcing the no-fly zone as
> per the '91 peace treaty; the UN embargo would be eroding as
> Saddam's willingness to mistreat his population under the
> Oil-for-Palaces program made the embargo increasingly unpopular.
>
> Because of oil contracts between Total Petrofina and Saddam, France
> would always block UN action there. Because of their own potential
> oil deals, Russia and China would do likewise.
>
> After the UN embargo fell apart, Saddam would rearm, with his sons
> ready to take over after their daddy's death.
>
> It would be a slow festering mess, getting more and more dangerous
> and intractable for the whole world. (As opposed to the present
> intractable and dangerous mess for the USA.)
>
> In this alternative future for Iraq, how would it be resolved?
>
I see it continuing with him teasing us, and with us having enough maturity
to let it go us until in fact he did something substantive, if he ever did.
Then we'd have moral standing to strike back and no doubt the support of
the world instead of its opprobrium.
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