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Nation Building Iraq way down the road
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by YankeeJim | July 21, 2010 at 07:16 am
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The USA pounded Iraq because they were a threatening menace to the region that would not stop misbehaving. We attacked them for their belligerence and for pretending to have WMD. They fooled us and we beat them into some form of submission.
Not wanting to just walk away from the mess, and to ensure some positive probability of achieving neutrality or a working relationship, we instructed our military leader, General Austin, to determine which Iraq leaders we should be working with. He does this in council with the State Department of course, but it is the general’s name we see in the news because this remains a military operation.
Iraq is an enemy because of past behavior. What will it take for Iraq to achieve a neutral footing with the USA? Do they want to?
Iraq is a nation whose population is largely Islamic, though the government is not Islamic. How should America interpret that?
America will be looking to Iraq to show indications of becoming a democratic republic that embraces individual liberty and freedom. If they demonstrate that sincere desire, they could go onto the Nation Building candidate list, assuming that at some point in the distant future, America will once again be able to afford Nation Building; surely not now.
“Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin to face different mission when he returns to Iraq as U.S. commander
By Craig Whitlock
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
The last time Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III was based in Iraq, he served as the No. 2 U.S. commander, overseeing day-to-day operations for 160,000 combat troops from the United States and 20 allied nations.
This month, Austin earned a promotion -- to go back to Iraq as the top U.S. commander there. When he starts his new job as a four-star general in early September, however, he will be in charge of a vastly smaller force and a very different mission.
By Aug. 31, the U.S. military is scheduled to have only 50,000 troops in Iraq, in keeping with a withdrawal timeline President Obama set shortly after he took office last year. For the first time since the 2003 invasion, none of the troops will be officially assigned to combat missions, as U.S. service members concentrate on training and assisting Iraqi security forces.”
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 16:15 on July 21st, 2010
This is one hell of a good story.