what if ..... ?
What if the war ended today?
I am talking about a complete disengagement, a whole fleet of ships and planes to go out and get the troops and bring them home. (For the sake of not complicating the question, I will assume that all the weapons and equipment will also leave).
What then?
What would the political and economic landscape look like?
What would the political, economic, and yes, religious ramifications for the rest of the world be?
Is the war in Afghanistan lumped in with the war in Iraq? Since I am asking, should this war be escalated to meet the mounting insurgency being coordinated from Pakistan? And should we consider a few incursions into that country to clean out the riff-raff?
If anyone is reading this, I would really like to hear from you.
update 1:
I would like to say that the evil of this war, (as opposed to war in general), is that we can only break even in Iraq. If/when we "win", we will have what we had before, a stable secular government that is capable of keeping Iran in check and therefore keeping the oil flowing through the Persian Gulf. There is no guarantee, (maybe not even a possibility), that the new government will be an ally or even friendly to the U.S.
It's pretty sad when the best case scenario is break even.
And it is not even that. we are spending about $800,000,000 per week (much of that going to large US firms that just happen to be buddy-buddy with the administration and the party in power). This war is partially about the world economy, (in which we must exist), and a lot about some of us making some really big bucks while we are at it.
On the issue of Afghanistan, the issues are murky, but this seems to be the current headquarters of the outfit that is generating the turmoil in the region. If we are going to be able to end the war at all, this country must first be secured, by whatever means is necessary. This includes the elimination of the ideological threat, the threat posed by agriculture, (two thirds of the worlds heroin comes from this area), and the investment in infrastructure that will give the average citizen a stake in the success of his or her new government.
update 2:
If the U.S. and its erstwhile allies were to pull out of Iraq today, we would leave the country in shambles, soon to be overrun by Iranian and Taliban backed forces, who would then attempt to subvert the two significant stable countries in the region, Saudi Arabia and Israel, and then, to impose their own brand of politics and morality on the energy consuming world.
It appears that we may have cut our own throats and are now furiously trying to stem the flow of blood, while smiling and pretending that it is no big deal.
Even today, we do not know the 'real' reason that we went to war in Iraq. It is easy, (and the conclusions do have some logic behind them), to simply chalk it up to Bush-isms, corporate greed, and general ineptitude. I am certain that those are a factor, but possibly not enough.
We have cut our throat, and do not know why.
In the current climate, there is no confidence in our leadership. Believe it or not, similar things have happened in the past, with different effects. Franklin Roosevelt was accused of manipulating the media, subverting the Constitution and greatly expanding the power of the Executive Branch of the government. He was successful at some efforts, and rebuked at others, but neither he, nor the country suffered any longterm harm, simply because the electorate was behind him, he inspired confidence as a leader and he knew where to stop, and sometimes retreat a bit. The guy we have now has no such sense of leadership, and as such is crippled politically; he has to resort to thumbing his nose at the Congress, the Courts and people to get his way, hoping that he himself is not subverted or overthrown before he has to leave.
I am talking about a complete disengagement, a whole fleet of ships and planes to go out and get the troops and bring them home. (For the sake of not complicating the question, I will assume that all the weapons and equipment will also leave).
What then?
What would the political and economic landscape look like?
What would the political, economic, and yes, religious ramifications for the rest of the world be?
Is the war in Afghanistan lumped in with the war in Iraq? Since I am asking, should this war be escalated to meet the mounting insurgency being coordinated from Pakistan? And should we consider a few incursions into that country to clean out the riff-raff?
If anyone is reading this, I would really like to hear from you.
update 1:
I would like to say that the evil of this war, (as opposed to war in general), is that we can only break even in Iraq. If/when we "win", we will have what we had before, a stable secular government that is capable of keeping Iran in check and therefore keeping the oil flowing through the Persian Gulf. There is no guarantee, (maybe not even a possibility), that the new government will be an ally or even friendly to the U.S.
It's pretty sad when the best case scenario is break even.
And it is not even that. we are spending about $800,000,000 per week (much of that going to large US firms that just happen to be buddy-buddy with the administration and the party in power). This war is partially about the world economy, (in which we must exist), and a lot about some of us making some really big bucks while we are at it.
On the issue of Afghanistan, the issues are murky, but this seems to be the current headquarters of the outfit that is generating the turmoil in the region. If we are going to be able to end the war at all, this country must first be secured, by whatever means is necessary. This includes the elimination of the ideological threat, the threat posed by agriculture, (two thirds of the worlds heroin comes from this area), and the investment in infrastructure that will give the average citizen a stake in the success of his or her new government.
update 2:
If the U.S. and its erstwhile allies were to pull out of Iraq today, we would leave the country in shambles, soon to be overrun by Iranian and Taliban backed forces, who would then attempt to subvert the two significant stable countries in the region, Saudi Arabia and Israel, and then, to impose their own brand of politics and morality on the energy consuming world.
It appears that we may have cut our own throats and are now furiously trying to stem the flow of blood, while smiling and pretending that it is no big deal.
Even today, we do not know the 'real' reason that we went to war in Iraq. It is easy, (and the conclusions do have some logic behind them), to simply chalk it up to Bush-isms, corporate greed, and general ineptitude. I am certain that those are a factor, but possibly not enough.
We have cut our throat, and do not know why.
In the current climate, there is no confidence in our leadership. Believe it or not, similar things have happened in the past, with different effects. Franklin Roosevelt was accused of manipulating the media, subverting the Constitution and greatly expanding the power of the Executive Branch of the government. He was successful at some efforts, and rebuked at others, but neither he, nor the country suffered any longterm harm, simply because the electorate was behind him, he inspired confidence as a leader and he knew where to stop, and sometimes retreat a bit. The guy we have now has no such sense of leadership, and as such is crippled politically; he has to resort to thumbing his nose at the Congress, the Courts and people to get his way, hoping that he himself is not subverted or overthrown before he has to leave.
posted by eccentric recluse at 7:11 AM
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