XPost: alt.fan.j-garofalo, alt.atheism, alt.radio.talk   
   XPost: seattle.politics   
      
   On Thu, 08 Apr 2004 00:36:00 GMT, "Christopher Helms"   
    wrote:   
      
   >There's no way in hell we can be out of there by June 30th or whatever the   
   >supposed date is for handing over power without either having the country   
   >end up as your "fundamentalist Shia state" or something else equally nasty.   
   >Those people are becoming united under a common hatred of us. I don't think   
   >it's all "Saddam loyalists" that are doing all this, either. Those people   
   >are reacting to us the same way we'd react if somebody stomped into our   
   >country and started telling us how things were gonna be. Saddam may have   
   >been a prick, but he was no threat to us. We are the aggressor in this. We   
   >are the bad guys. We started this and there's no clean way we can finish it.   
      
      
   Yep. You cnn bet if the US was occupied, Clave, Mitchum, Cappy, and   
   Smitty would be shoulder to shoulder giving 'em hell.   Occupation   
   unites. (Gee there's that "I'm a Uniter, not a divider" thing again.   
      
   Yep. I'm afraid to we've now been pushed into the "you broke it you   
   fix it" position. We can't leave - much as I didn't want us to go in.   
   We have to stay until the fixing of things is well underway. But I   
   think that means putting it in the hands of someone who's motives can   
   not be questioned or linked to ours - the UN perhaps- or a mix of   
   europeans and Arab/Islamic states.  We should be funding the repairs,   
   and keeping a low military profile in the end.  DOing what has won us   
   friends and partners in the past - a Marshall plan type solution,   
   inundate them with food, infrastructure, books, teachers, jobs, all   
   the stuff that makes democracy work.   
      
   We've got to minimize the perception that we're they're to advance   
   empire, steal oil, repress Islam, etc. And work on demonstrating truth   
   behind the rhetoric of bringing freedom and democracy.   
      
   unfortunately it's going to take a long time (or a change in   
   administration) to get the allies we really need to step in for us   
   (thanks for alienating 80% of the world W.) and it's going to cost a   
   lot more US blood while we put that package together.   
      
   And then we're going to have to pay a tremendous additional bill in   
   tax dollars to generate good will there.   
      
   But it'll be cheaper and more successful than the 20 years of   
   occupation we're looking at now.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)