Comments on: Hope in Iraq http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/hope_in_iraq/ Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs Fri, 5 Dec 2008 09:38:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Hal http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/hope_in_iraq/#comment-15572 Hal Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000 /?p=5847#comment-15572 Uh, the Taliban are dangerously close to regaining control of Afghanistan. Even if we win out there, there's nothing like a functioning democracy in the warlord ruled land. We're leveraged down in Iraq. The only hope we have is in the person who believes in a fundamentalist Islamic state - hardly a democracy by our standards (or the standards we were led to believe by the whole pro-war side). Well, we have one other hope in Chalabi, but considering what he's turned out to be, I think that's a laughable point. We now have the conjoining of Hamas and Iraq, which is something that didn't exist before and now is going to cause us unknown amounts of pain. And as to the "truce" and whether this signals weakness in Al Qaeda, I think that it's pretty clear that it was meant as a warning - especially after the Madrid bombings. Can anyone say 2004 Olympics? I would say that this whole exercise is one of grasping at straws. It's a pile of crap and at best there is the hope that 20 years down the road we will have done some good. But in the short term (5-6 years) we've done nothing but create far more terrorists than we have killed, instilled the muslim people with a distinct hatred for our country, and to top it off we're bargaining and having a great time with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - hey, loved watching Woodward last night on 60 minutes. Bravo! --- Uh, the Taliban are dangerously close to regaining control of Afghanistan. Even if we win out there, there's nothing like a functioning democracy in the warlord ruled land. We're leveraged down in Iraq. The only hope we have is in the person who believes in a fundamentalist Islamic state - hardly a democracy by our standards (or the standards we were led to believe by the whole pro-war side). Well, we have one other hope in Chalabi, but considering what he's turned out to be, I think that's a laughable point.

We now have the conjoining of Hamas and Iraq, which is something that didn't exist before and now is going to cause us unknown amounts of pain.

And as to the "truce" and whether this signals weakness in Al Qaeda, I think that it's pretty clear that it was meant as a warning - especially after the Madrid bombings. Can anyone say 2004 Olympics?

I would say that this whole exercise is one of grasping at straws. It's a pile of crap and at best there is the hope that 20 years down the road we will have done some good. But in the short term (5-6 years) we've done nothing but create far more terrorists than we have killed, instilled the muslim people with a distinct hatred for our country, and to top it off we're bargaining and having a great time with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - hey, loved watching Woodward last night on 60 minutes.

Bravo!

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