--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > You are kidding about this. We had one true ally in > this Britain. The other are either not major players > or are anxious to please us (not a bad thing; it is > refreshing that countries that owe their freedom to > us feel gratitude but they would probably have > agreed if we said we wanted to invade the moon). > There was so much ill will towards us that Schroeder > got elected because he pledged to oppose the war. > When the french went crazy he was stuck. It may be > true that we didn't need any help but you don't have > to rub the noses of the rest of the world in that > fact. Especially if you need the rest of the world > to manage the reconstruction of iraq
Which we apparently don't. The astonishing failure of the mass media to cover the fact that the reconstruction is going fairly well is, well, astonishing. I think it's largely because most reporters are too lazy to get out of Baghdad, combined (of course) with hatred of the Administration, but you'd think that they'd be at least _vaguely_ competent. But they don't. All of that aside, Bob, you keep circling back to the same essential mistake, the belief that there was some combination of words that would have convinced the rest of the world to go along with Iraq. You have _no_ evidence for this, and a great deal of evidence otherwise. For 12 years after the war, France was essentially bought off by Saddam and campaigned to _lift_ the sanctions. Germany's anti-Americanism is so hysterical that one-third of the population thinks that _we_ were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. What makes you think that they would have agreed to an invasion that was clearly not in their commercial interests (because they were in hock to Saddam) and not in their power interests (because it demonstrated their absolute and self-inflicted irrelevance on the world stage)? If not for 9/11, Bush could not have gotten the early momentum that made the whole thing possible, and he _certainly_ could not have got Britain, Australia, (I hope that none of our Australian list members object to the constant denigration-through-omission here of Australia's heroic efforts to liberate Iraq - as much as Britain, Australia is a true friend to the US and to freedom. John Howard is no less a great man than Tony Blair for his stand.) Japan, Poland, and the Czech Republic (among others) as well as the (critical) acquiescence of Russia. He made a choice. That choice was, I think, the right one, but the choice did exist, and pretending that it didn't is allowing your hatred of the President to cripple your judgment. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
