The Iraq War (General)

by David Turell , Wednesday, June 16, 2010, 23:16 (5085 days ago) @ dhw


> David, the 1930s appeaser was Neville Chamberlain, not Anthony Eden. You say I should have learned from the 1930s attempts at appeasement.-I know I was wrong, shortly after I typed that comment, but I was already gone from the house on an errand, and never got back to put in a correction. Churchill was always such a bull dog of a stateman, Eden always came across as a wimp to me as a young kid following Europe after the war. That is what mixed up my memory. I've not studied the history, I lived it. As for appeasement, that is what is happening now by the European governments, not our glorious leader, dhw. -> 
> As regards the link between your two paragraphs, it is widely believed over here (and also, I think, by many Americans) that Iraq was invaded in order to gain control of the oil, and other reasons such as WMD and Al Qaeda were merely a pretext. If this is true, appeasement does not even enter the debate. If the purpose was to develop Iraq as a semi-democracy friendly to the West, I would say, as many ... including Robin Cook and Clare Short ... predicted BEFORE the invasion, that the war has only increased the threat of terrorism and added to the instability of the Middle East.-Your paragraph above describes an attempt to isolate Iran as a I stated yesterday. Carter got us into that mess, and Iran is becoming very dangerous. The Iraq approach got rid of a nasty dictator who killed lots of folks, fought for years with Iran, killing how many (?) and with no reason tried to absorb Kuwait to get oil and sea coast. Your statement also supports reality foreign affairs policy. Appease the Arabs, let dangerous dictators go about their business. Yes Iraq stirred up reactionary Muslims but the Wahabis were always stirring things up and continue to do so with petroleum dollars. OBL is a Wahabi. -The ideal world would have all freedom-loving nations producing all the oil they can, the hell with global warming, and not continue to kowtow in a mamby-pamby way to Arabs, (just to have their oil) who can't stand democracy and need powerful dictators to run their lives.-I obviously think Iraq was a noble experiment in statemanship, ignoring 'reality' accommendations. In this regard, Afganistan is a worse trap. It have always itself run by a powerful interlocking tribal system. They don't want any foreigners on their soil at any time, and the USA has added troops under Obama, while the real quarry in hiding in Pakistan. We can't invade a nuclear power, and OBL keeps going.