[lit-ideas] Re: Five Years Ago
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 22:10:29 -0700
Valli Nasr said we handled Afghanistan exactly right. We got all the
surrounding nations to sit down at a meeting in Europe. I don't remember
this meeting and haven't read his book yet, but when they all agreed to
support the Afghan government, there wasn't anything of a serious nature
that could thwart it. Yeah there are warlords and some resurgent Taliban
and they still raise drugs, but there is no serious impediment that will
prevent them succeeding as a nation. He says we need to do that with Iraq.
I'm just telling you what he said and can't support it. I don't remembering
that happening with Afghanistan. My wife asked me if we got Iran to the
table for Afghanistan why couldn't we do it for Iraq? A reason occurs to
me. Rafsanjani was probably in power to some extent back in 2001. He was
noted for making deals. There may be no one in power in Iran like that now.
As to getting out of Saudi Arabia, we got out a long time ago. The Saudis
asked us to leave and we did.
I don't know
Lawrence
_____
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Andy Amago
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 9:39 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Five Years Ago
Iran's got Iraq one way or the other, so we may as well have them friend as
foe. Afghanistan has been lost for years. It's just ripening now, that's
all, and the horrendous drug trade, basically their only crop, is financing
the Taliban along with the war lords. My intuition tells me that
Ahmadinejad talks a good line the way Reagan talked a good line to give
himself credibility and A's just paving the way for the mullahs who are a
lot more reasonable than we give them credit for in our paranoid rants.
They may not be a democracy, but they're politically savvy and crafty.
Certainly they're not insane, which is what they would have to be to drop a
bomb on Israel. The consensus is that the Iranian people are passive and
even supportive of the U.S. Of course attacking their country will probably
change that. The Saudis I'm having a harder time with because they're
allied with the U.S. more or less, and we've managed to get ourselves
reviled in the M.E. One of OBL's things is that the U.S. has to get out of
Saudi Arabia. I have a less clear understanding of that end of it and how
it could be handled. The Sunnis are the majority yet they're concentrated
in Indonesia, Pakistan. In Pakistan Musharif is basically walking a
tightrope.
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