From: "Antti Kurenniemi" 

"Geo."  wrote in message
news:405b92ce$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> > soon, leaving the whole mess behind. Just like the first gulf war.
> > Go in, shoot all the bad guys, get out. Life's like a big video game.
>
> So Kuwait is a big mess?

Iraq. The first gulf war left it in a mess.


> Antti, you gotta understand something, we didn't *take* Afghanistan,
> we simply took action against a group who took action against us
> first

I understand that. The operation in Afghanistan was for the right reasons,
but it will take many years before we know if it was played right. Right
now, as I understand, there is real danger of things slipping back to what
they were before, with the Taleban replaced by another bunch of nutters.


> and in the process decided we could help the native people build a
> better world for themselves. But like any *better* world, it's gotta
> be the peoples world and they are really the ones who have to do
> the building.

That's true. But they really need help.


> I'm sure we'll stick around to do all that

I hope so.


> > Support the good actions and not the bad ones. Don't set an
> > example to other similar rulers that as long as you have big
> > enough army you can just wave your dick at the UN and all
> > other countries and attack whoever you want.
>
> We don't do that,

Which one, supporting the good actions?


> it took a huge attack against this country to get us into the shit.
> They tried to blow up the towers once before, we did nothing.
> They blew up embassys, we did nothing. They blew up one of
> our battleships, we did nothing. But then they killed 3000
> people in NYC, that demanded action.

That, IMO, sucks, though it's impossible to say after the fact that the WTC
attack wouldn't have happened if the US had gotten involved earlier.


> > Don't sell guns to them through every back door. Don't spoil the efforts
> > made by others just because you think it's good for your internal
politics
> > to go to war. Don't fuck up a country like Iraq where there actually was
> > progress being made, like education for women and active weapons
> > inspections.
>
> Iraq is kind of a special case, back in 1991 we didn't do what we
> should have, we should have finished it then but we were working
> under the UN who didn't have the balls to do what needed to be
> done. You don't fight a war against a man like Saddam and then
> leave him in power, that's just not a workable solution.

Well I disagree with that. After the first gulf war, Saddam hasn't exactly
been doing anything too terrible apart from the alleged rape rooms and all
that, and with a bit more involvment after the first war I'm pretty sure
Iraq might have become a much better place than it did.


> > What I think is happening now is a quick fix powered by
> > wrong motives
>
> What I see happening is a permanent solution to the saddam
> problem.

Ok, but Saddam is hardly the real problem - he's just one guy.


Antti Kurenniemi

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