Last week our ally Pakistan signed a peace treaty with our enemies, the Taliban. Now our ally Iraq is making deals in Iran with our enemy, Ahmadinejad. Iraqi Prime Minister travels to Iran This does not sound good. Who exactly are our allies and our enemies over there? Iran is actively trying to get involved with the Iraqi government that we support at the same time as they assist the Shiite death squads killing Sunnis and the insurgents killing US troops.
Leads me to believe folks like me who have been saying we really have no allies in the muslim/arab world are correct.
I believe you're right. I believe our only real ally is Britain and maybe Australia. The rest are our allies of convenience. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia etc are our allies in as much as it suits them economically to be. There's not many countries in the world that don't enjoy seeing us get our fair share of heartache and strife. As long as we're mindful of that and play along then that's OK. What the Bush administration and all administrations say in public about a certain country being a friend and ally and what they know and say in private has always been two different things.
Sooo . . . since Iraq is our enemy, why the hell are we rebuilding the country with money we are borrowing from China while they try to kill our people? The military sacked the country in 21 days, Saddam is captured, the WMD don't exist . . . ain't we finished here? What do we owe these ragheads? We need to back the Kurds because they fought with us and are not trying to kill us. But the Sunnis and the Shiites can just kill each other as far as I care and we don't need to referee it. They come in WAY low on the immediate threat list.
we arent doing it for them, we are doing it for us. the spread of democracy and capitalism is the only long term solution to the world's problems. less middle east chaos = safer world.
That would be nice, all right. List for us, if you will, our democratic and capitalistic achievements regarding Iraq and Iran.
i didnt claim what we are doing is working, that is another question, we can argue that some other time. right now i am reminding you that we are not fighting because we "owe" them anything. and i am also answering your question "why the hell are we rebuilding the country". the answer is that we want a stable iraq with a government and infrastructure, because that is safer for everyone.
Something I thought of after Red's original post; the only "allies" we have over there are our allies because, as LC said, we continually buy their allegiance. And, as we all know, any friend you have to buy really isn't much of a friend. So, what happens if/when, the US moves to alternative fuels and frees itself from dependency on foreign oil? What happens if, the US starts depending more on the oil we have, or what if that whole "oil is a renewable resource" turns out to be true? If any one or any combination of these occur, that means we stop buying friends. Then what? We will see who our true allies are, and we will find there are none in that part of the world, and they will have no reason to refrain from joining the rest of the loons, unless, as martin says, we can bring capitalism to them, but that's an awful lot of rugs and polo shirts to buy. Next stop, on to armageddon, I'm afraid, because those folks don't handle poverty all that well, and greed seems to be the only thing that's stop them from killing -- each other and us. Like Hank Jr. said, "the preacher man says it's the end of time, and the Mississippi River she's a goin' dry". (Crossed the river in Vicksburg a couple of weeks back, and she's mighty low, so watch out.) Oh well, that's my looney rant of the day. I think it has something to do with the weather. It was 58 here this morning when I woke up; feels like football season and it also got me wanting a polish sausage and some taffy from the fair. As soon as this cool front passes, hopefully I'll go back to normal.
I don't know where I said Iraq is our enemy. With Saddam there, Iraq was considered a terrorist nation and a danger, yes. But now with their Constitution, elections....blah, blah, blah.....they are not our enemy. Martin's right again. We're not rebuilding them to atone for anything. We're rebuilding them to give the best possible chance at success in their fledging democracy. In the long run (as I have said many times) that is the best thing for everyone involved......except the terrorists of course. LONG RUN!
Unfortunately, it's all about perception. The very reason our military isn't allowed to bomb mosques and cemeteries.
