Reply #127: you ask hard questions

[welshTerrier2]

i'll take the easy one first: is the US intentionally fueling the civil war.

i do NOT believe it is an "intended objective" of current US policy to fuel the civil war in Iraq ... i do think the civil war, however, is badly aggravated by current US policy ...

Do I think "we could fix Iraq if we wanted to"???

truthfully, i'm not sure how to answer this question ... i guess i would have to start with the clear statement that i don't think we really want to "fix" things in Iraq ... when i say "we", i mean the adminstration and those who pull its strings ... US involvement has always been about oil ... we went into Iraq to establish a pro-US puppet government that would be "friendly" to big oil ... check out Tom Hayden's article on the ISG ... the ISG is just one last push for big oil to still get a "win" ... here's a link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-hayden/troops-out-oil-companies_b_35816.html

by what reasoning can i accept discussions of "regional negotiations" or training Iraqi troops or remaining in Iraq to prevent genocide? the truth is that i don't think any of those things is the real objective of US policy ... we are there for oil ... we are certainly not there to do anything positive for the Iraqi people ... does anyone really see bush as "well meaning" even if they see him as inept? does anyone believe bush wants to "do right by the Iraqis"?? does anyone believe the "big oil boys" are not whispering in his ear everyday???

the bottom line, i'm sorry to say, is that i do not trust the US government to do the right thing ...

now, if i did trust our government, do i think it's possible that we could somehow effect an acceptable outcome in Iraq? i'm struggling with this a bit but i would have to say "no" ... it brings me back to the phrase we discussed upthread: "significant leverage for establishing peace" ... i think most Americans overestimate the power and influence we have in being able to shape the destinies of other countries and other cultures ... in our Western naivete, we venture into areas unknown as if we can just wave our magic wands around and change what often is thousands of years of ingrained history ... i don't know who the hell we think we are ... military might and even diplomacy gives us no special abilities to engineer deep changes in old cultures ...

so, i guess i'm left saying "no"; we could not have succeeded in Iraq even if we had wanted to ...