Kurt Ullman wrote:
> In article ,
>  Kay Shapero  wrote:
>> Permanent occupation, however, only counts as a win if you're trying to 
>> build an empire. Otherwise, it's a continual, sometimes deadly, 
>> nuisance.  So, what are we trying to achieve here?

>           Germany?

And that is the tragic error that Bush and his supporters are making: 
Iraq is not Germany.

Germany was a civilized country that went temporarily insane in the 
space of less than a generation. One of the reasons that Hitler was able 
to do as much evil as he did was that no one but his followers took him 
seriously. When Hitler became Chancellor, Churchill himself was quoted 
in "Time" to the effect that, now that Hitler had what he wanted, he 
could stop spouting all that nonsense and get down to the serious 
business of running a government. Many middle-class and upper-class 
continental Jews chose not to emigrate when it was still possible for 
them to do so because they could not conceive of something so monstrous 
as the Holocaust coming from the land of Goethe and Beethoven. And (the 
record is plain, and it was no secret at the time, though few are 
comfortable speaking of it now) even after the war began, many British 
Jews did their best to evade taxes, dodge military service, etc., in the 
belief that it was all just another gentile head-butting contest, and, 
consequently, Someone Else's Problem.

It is true that Germany nearly had to be ground to powder between the 
British, French, and Americans in the west and Russia in the East. But 
after the Short Sharp Shock, the German people were able to turn back to 
their past, and remember who they really were. Germany and Austria had 
dominated serious western music throughout modern history. Many leading 
modern philosophers had been German. Germany had even been the 
birthplace of liberal Judaism. (As late as when "Hogan's Heroes" was 
being made, people still remembered that Germany also used to be the 
world's leading exporter of toys; I wonder how many remember that now, 
except for freaks like me.)

With Iraq, we do not have that history of civilization to build on. The 
conflict between Sunni and Shia has been going on since Mohamed died, 
and shows no sign of stopping. (There is also an underlying tension over 
the fact that most of the Shia are Iranian, and most of the Sunni 
identify themselves as Arabs.) Both sides glorify suicide attacks. And 
both sides are still in an essentially tribal culture of blood feuds.

The Kurds might be separated out, but Turkey refuses to accept the 
possibility, and US policy chooses not to offend Turkey.

There is another difference between Germany and Iraq. Germany was 
engaged in a war of conquest, and lost. Iraq (this time) was not. That 
makes us the Hated Invader, with no apparent justification for our actions.

-- 
John W. Kennedy
"Sweet, was Christ crucified to create this chat?"
   -- Charles Williams.  "Judgement at Chelmsford"
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