Reply #6: Then we'd better find a way [View All]

[neoblues]

to achieve some sort of peace in the middle east and at the very least prevent IRAN from annexing IRAQ (and we more or less owe it to the people of IRAQ to fix the mess we made; a sort of if you broke it, you own it). Besides it's in our long term interests do do something right--what, I don't know. I mean, "military occupation" doesn't seem right, but the alternatives seem even more disasterous. Ideally, if we really could bring a free market economy and democratic constitutional republic to these people who've never before known such freedoms--but such things are indeed foreign to them and it would mean a long-term, painful and costly investment--and one that isn't going to be a walk in the park (and often isn't going to be welcome--as welcome as detox to a crack addict even). However, if we leave, the theocratic lunatic Ahmadinejad will taka advantage, allow the civil war and in the end, IRAQ will become Western IRAN. Between the gigantic oil reserves of IRAN (world's third largest remaining conventional crude oil reserves) combined with those of IRAQ (world's fourth largest reserves), they will... literally have the world over a barrel. A situation we really ought to try to avoid (even if we have to resort to less than ethical behavior? there's the rub).

Nothing is going to be easy and the consequences for the wrong choices may be extreme; meanwhile the whole world may be becoming uninhabitable. Oh joy.