Douglas Friedman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in part: >While I am certainly pro-Israel, and think the US govt. is not pro-Israel e>nough (I feel the same about Israel's current PM/Knesset),
Heh. >FTR, I continue to believe the battle for Iraq - part of the war on terror >- was a good idea, though I fault the execution, mainly because it did two >things wrong. First, it didn't go far enough. I would have invaded Syria ne>xt, while we still had the strategic offensive. That would have blocked the> inflow of foreign fighters/terrorists into Iraq, leaving the fighting agai>nst us to the Revolutionary Guard remnants, renamed insurgents. At the time>, Iran's govt. was tottering and I would have given it a push, not by invad>ing, but by supporting the pro-freedom opposition politically and with air >strikes. I thought more or less the same, but I wouldn't go for air strikes against Iran. AFAIK Iran's pro-freedom opposition is not geographically concentrated and would not benefit particularly by air strikes. As to Iraq, I second the sweep-up of Syria. I was always against an occupation of Iraq for anywhere near this length of time. I think Iraq could've been deal with swiftly, and Kurdistan severed from it as unfortunately delayed payback to the Kurds for their friendship. What's that, you say? The Turks wouldn't like it, and they're our longer-term friends? I think those who'd say so are overvaluing that relationship. Turkey was friendly for one reason only: scared shitless of the Russians. Domestically and internationally, Turkey has not been too congenial with liberalism. They've whipsawed over the last century between domination by, and suppression of, Islam -- an unstable situation. Plus, they were on what I take to be the bad guys' side on Cyprus. So I say if they need to be dumped for our new "date" in the region, Kurdistan, fine. I think they'd just pout & hang on anyway. As to the rest of Iraq, who cares? Install a puppet on long strings, and look away. It'll take them a long time to find & install another Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile they'd just be glad to be able to sell oil again to someone besides the French & Germans, and get dollars. In Your Sly Tribe, Robert _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list Libnw@immosys.com List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
