12-10-2005, 06:21 AM
[ QUOTE ]
Only two things ever mattered to this wars success, wether the Iraqi people wanted a liberal democracy and wether they were willing to accept outside interference to get from point A to point B. They have clearly rejected both of these things.
[/ QUOTE ] I found this post, particularily the first premise, so blissfully ignorant and unfortuanately generally indicative of the general misunderstanding of why Iraq is such a mess, that i feel the need to discuss it in its own thread. Your assertion appears to be that the sorry state that we see in Iraq today is essentialyy the fault of the Iraqi people. It is their refusal to accept a, "liberal democracy" which has gotten us where we are today. There are many reasons why this is ridiculous, here are two. First: It is insane to think that one can go into a country which has been ruled by a iron fisted dictatorship for decades, topple the regime, and then expect the largely tribal population to, "accept liberal democracy" in a matter of 2 years. It would be exeedingly difficult to go into a relatively ethnically and religiously homogeneous country with nio history of democracy, and expect them to be able to pull any sort of cohesive government together in 2 years. I'm a jerk-off college student, and understand that in a country like Iraq peoples loyalties to there sect/ethnicity is atleast as strong as their ties to their country. To expect a "people to exept a democracy" out of this type of background, in the time frame we are looking at, in the environment we find in Iraq is ridiculous at best. Which brings me to my second point. Two: ordinary Iraqi citizens are being slaughtered to the tune of scores per week, on a good week. You want them to find the time to, "exept democracy" wheile they are desperatley trying to stay alive? Come on.
Only two things ever mattered to this wars success, wether the Iraqi people wanted a liberal democracy and wether they were willing to accept outside interference to get from point A to point B. They have clearly rejected both of these things.
[/ QUOTE ] I found this post, particularily the first premise, so blissfully ignorant and unfortuanately generally indicative of the general misunderstanding of why Iraq is such a mess, that i feel the need to discuss it in its own thread. Your assertion appears to be that the sorry state that we see in Iraq today is essentialyy the fault of the Iraqi people. It is their refusal to accept a, "liberal democracy" which has gotten us where we are today. There are many reasons why this is ridiculous, here are two. First: It is insane to think that one can go into a country which has been ruled by a iron fisted dictatorship for decades, topple the regime, and then expect the largely tribal population to, "accept liberal democracy" in a matter of 2 years. It would be exeedingly difficult to go into a relatively ethnically and religiously homogeneous country with nio history of democracy, and expect them to be able to pull any sort of cohesive government together in 2 years. I'm a jerk-off college student, and understand that in a country like Iraq peoples loyalties to there sect/ethnicity is atleast as strong as their ties to their country. To expect a "people to exept a democracy" out of this type of background, in the time frame we are looking at, in the environment we find in Iraq is ridiculous at best. Which brings me to my second point. Two: ordinary Iraqi citizens are being slaughtered to the tune of scores per week, on a good week. You want them to find the time to, "exept democracy" wheile they are desperatley trying to stay alive? Come on.