Reply #85: I disagree ...

[Pepperbelly]

while we did break their shit, to our everlasting shame, the biggest instability there is us, not the Iraqis. And to presume to think that only we can fix it is only the latest manifestation of the White Man's Burden.

It isn't any truer now than it was then.

Most of the violence is the result not of religious fanaticism but of nationalism, the natural resentment against invaders or conquerors. The only sure way to cure the wound is to first remove the source of the irritation.