May 11, 2004
This Is What It's About
I found this post at INDC Journal via Willow, and this section in particular I found to be very powerful:
If you were horrified by what that small group of men did with a knife and a video camera, ponder what they yearn to do with highly efficient chemical agents, nuclear material or future nanotechnology. There is no exit strategy in Iraq, merely victory or defeat in the first or second round of a lifelong, messy epic battle - civilization vs. those that wish to destroy it. It's going to be ugly, it's going to involve defeats and it will not be politically expedient. Pick sides and fight, feel free to examine and question tactics, but don't for a second think that ignoring the war or withdrawing from individual battles will make its consequences disappear.
Posted by Ithildin at May 11, 2004 5:49 PM
| PROCURE FINE OLD WORLD ABSINTHE
My view seconds your notion. We can't afford to "slog"-as Mr. Rumsfeld so eloquently puts it- along in Iraq without a mission statement and a plan to build Iraq into a functioning nation-state. Force theory does not work unless you keep your captives at such a level that they cannot rebel. The best form of indoctrination is not to be "nice" but to take and educate a large group of the young Iraqis in the bounties of free expression and self-determination. I personally believe that while it is impossible to escape the images and stories that are coming from Iraq, we have at this time bigger more fearful fish to fry. China is becoming a real problem, not because they loathe us but because they want to be like us. Their demands on raw materials is potentially devastating for our economy and our standard of living. We are on the cusp of an inflationary nightmare because their country is growing extremely fast and its increasing its demand on limited resources such as oil.
I believe that we really need to seek to stabilize Siberia and concentrate our development for oil there.
We are in Iraq not because of the Hussein connections with Al Quaida but instead because with the huge surge of China we will need a source of oil that can support our high standard of living and consumption. The consumption of oil and the demand for oil is going up. China presently consumes 70 million barrels of oil a year roughly 27% of the worlds production. They expect to increase consumption to 144 million barrels in 10 years to achieve the same standard of living as Mexico-this is roughly 55% of the world's oil.
I ain't a "greenie" but I do feel that efforts to try to bring a foreign concept "democracy" to a state that has an established view of itself involving religious hegemony of head clerics directing policy based upon religious dogmas is beyond the carrying capacity of any democratic system. Madison as Publius in Federalist paper no. 10 specifically called for a separation between church and state and this would reinforced by Thomas Jefferson's Wall-of-Separation philosophy. We, as Americans, are much more accepting that other modern states because of the homogeneity of our composite population.
We need to stablize some resource rich areas of the world then lets work at areas like Siberia and Russia-Lets look forward and strive to leave the others back in the stone age- Lets be good neighbors but let us not be victims of hope for the impossible either.
My view seconds your notion. We can't afford to "slog"-as Mr. Rumsfeld so eloquently puts it- along in Iraq without a mission statement and a plan to build Iraq into a functioning nation-state. Force theory does not work unless you keep your captives at such a level that they cannot rebel. The best form of indoctrination is not to be "nice" but to take and educate a large group of the young Iraqis in the bounties of free expression and self-determination. I personally believe that while it is impossible to escape the images and stories that are coming from Iraq, we have at this time bigger more fearful fish to fry. China is becoming a real problem, not because they loathe us but because they want to be like us. Their demands on raw materials is potentially devastating for our economy and our standard of living. We are on the cusp of an inflationary nightmare because their country is growing extremely fast and its increasing its demand on limited resources such as oil.
I believe that we really need to seek to stabilize Siberia and concentrate our development for oil there.
Posted by: T. Kennedy at May 12, 2004 10:03 AMWe are in Iraq not because of the Hussein connections with Al Quaida but instead because with the huge surge of China we will need a source of oil that can support our high standard of living and consumption. The consumption of oil and the demand for oil is going up. China presently consumes 70 million barrels of oil a year roughly 27% of the worlds production. They expect to increase consumption to 144 million barrels in 10 years to achieve the same standard of living as Mexico-this is roughly 55% of the world's oil.
I ain't a "greenie" but I do feel that efforts to try to bring a foreign concept "democracy" to a state that has an established view of itself involving religious hegemony of head clerics directing policy based upon religious dogmas is beyond the carrying capacity of any democratic system. Madison as Publius in Federalist paper no. 10 specifically called for a separation between church and state and this would reinforced by Thomas Jefferson's Wall-of-Separation philosophy. We, as Americans, are much more accepting that other modern states because of the homogeneity of our composite population.
We need to stablize some resource rich areas of the world then lets work at areas like Siberia and Russia-Lets look forward and strive to leave the others back in the stone age- Lets be good neighbors but let us not be victims of hope for the impossible either.