"We warned the Bush Administration that invading Iraq (news - web sites) would destabilize the Middle East and spread radical anti-American Islamism. We told the American people that taking out Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) without a viable government to replace him would open a vacuum for anarchy, civil war and a power grab by radical Iranian-backed Shiite clerics. Now the antiwar movement's doomsday scenarios have been fulfilled so completely that military history scarcely mentions a more thoroughly botched endeavor--and we'll be living with the fallout for years. "
"allied commander Lt. Gen. David McKiernan announced that the peshmerga would be allowed to keep its automatic weapons and heavy artillery--becoming Kurdistan's de facto army. A few days later, Kurdish leaders announced plans to continue expanding their territory. "Now we are back in Mosul," regional governor Nechirvan Barzani told The New York Times. "We control Senjar and Mosul provinces. We want to add the other parts of Kurdistan." The most significant "other part" lies across the Iraqi-Turkish border. If Turkish Kurds armed by their Iraqi counterparts fight to attach southeastern Turkey to Iraqi Kurdistan, bloody civil wars and ethnic cleansing could sweep across Turkey to Eastern Europe and the Caucasus--potentially claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. " "SCIRI and other Shiite groups are already using their weapons and demographics--60 percent of Iraqis are Shia Muslims--to transform Saddam Hussein's modern secular dictatorship into a fundamentalist Islamic state melding Iranian Shiaism to Taliban-style Sharia law. Incredibly, American occupation forces are working with, and even financing, these anti-American zealots. " "Shiite militias that control Baghdad's vast Sadr City slum are already enforcing the mullahs' diktats. Sheik Kadhem al-Fartusi, who asserts that "Islam and all religions forbid alcohol," runs a local gang that beats liquor vendors and men who refuse to grow beards. "He's the primary shaker and mover here," U.S. Special Operations Maj. Arthur P. Vidal told The Times. Special ops troops pay Fartusi's religious police with "bricks of Iraqi dinars." Presidents Reagan and Bush I armed and funded similar men with identical religious and political beliefs in Afghanistan during the 1980s and 1990s. The result was Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), September 11, 2001. So why the hell are we doing it again? " Well..so far there haven't been any evidence brought by the Bush administration to refute these 'Doomsday' scenarios. No WMD...continuing and perhaps escalating terrorist attacks overseas,complete lack of stability in Iraq (the argument that under Saddam there was no stability is easily refuted). Osama still talking about blowing up the western world (he'll start with the US but surely move on from there to all those that aren't muslims that share a certain religious viewpoint), and the US using an excuse that Saddam probably moved his WMD to Iran or Syria (good god! Now that's much worse than if he'd kept them at home isn't it? ). It's really quite ironic that in the midst of all this there is a US backed 'Peace Plan' for the Middle East. Does the US intend to keep EVERYONE in check under threat of military invasion, rather than through stable self governance?? -Gel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
