Reinman wrote:
Quote:
The Harris survey found that 45 percent of Americans - up from 37 percent in February - think the United States is "very likely" to get bogged down "for a long time" in Iraq.
I think this says it all, I would prefer this number to be in to 90-95% range. Out of the majority 55%, if you asked these people how the government is going to get out of this situation, I wonder what kind of answer you would get.
Heck. I'd prefer if the number was 100%. It would mean that the American population didn't believe that we could enact major political change in the middle east in a few weeks with zero casualties.
What part of Bush saying: "We're in this for the long haul", and "We have a long road ahead of us" did people not get? Why is anyone surprised that we're going to be in Iraq for quite some time?
Grady wrote:
We've taken everything from them and offered them a couple of vague concepts as a reasoning.
What did we take from them? The regular jailing and torturing of anyone who questioned the state? The constant living in fear that even the hint of disagreement with the wrong person could result in brutal retaliation? If that's what you're talking about, then sure.
We took one thing away that really matters. Their self determination. That's the real problem with Iraq right now. No matter what we do, there will always be a sense that the government that results is not their own. That's the biggest trick to all of this. It's something we managed to do in Germany and Japan after WW2, but were utterly unable to do in South Vietnam during that conflict. There are certainly elements of both kinds of political situations in Iraq. I still say that everything in Iraq hinges on the makeup of the new government, and how the bulk of the Iraqi people respond to that government.
We'll just have to see how that works out. There is a "win" scenario for the US in this. It's a difficult one, but it's certainly possible. And if we pull it off, it will be huge. And honestly, even if we fail, we've done more with the message of Iraq then all the posturing and speeches of the last decade have done. Just ask why Syria and Libya are making concessions towards the US recently...