As the national debate about Iraq and what the
U.S. should do rages on – interrupted occasionally by idiots like John McCain –
the New York Times shows us the
intelligent level to which the debate really ought to rise.
by Charlie Leck
by Charlie Leck
As
Ramzy Mardini, Atlantic Council, says in his argument,…
“Indeed, it was
the U.S. invasion and occupation that unleashed the problem of Sunni and Shiite
militancy in Iraq. Thus, any U.S. approach against terrorism that is defined by
military power ends up misdiagnosing the problem: insurgencies and terrorism
are not causually derived from an absence of security; they are rather
manifested from deep social, political and economic ills.”
The
New York Times debate features the opinions of seven well qualified experts
of foreign and international relations. If you want to try to understand this
issue from both sides and the middle, this is the place to begin. The following
presentations are well worth the time you will devote to reading them. It will
help you think through this issue logically and from an informed foundation.
Don’t
take your leads from John McCain. The Senator, as he grows older, doesn’t think
before he shoots off his mouth. He’s no longer the wise moderate conservative
he once was. He’s confused now and thinks military action before all else these
days. Thank goodness we have a reasonable president right now.
We
don’t need fast, shoot-from-the-hip reactions at this critical moment. We just
finished wasting billions of dollars in Iraq and we made dozens of diplomatic
mistakes as we wasted away that money. And we brought home thousands of
seriously injured troops.
Americans
are quick to blame President Obama for leaving Iraq before the time was right.
We must remember that it was President Bush (George W.) who signed the papers
agreeing to leave that nation – and not President Obama.
Read
the above positions and you’ll realize that this is not an easy issue with easy
solutions. None of the statements are overly long. They will be satisfying even
when you disagree with them because they are well-thought-out comments that
propose reasonable and sensible actions. After reading them I feel less
worrisome about what is happening over there. The world is not coming to an
end!
“Iraq needs a major political reform that works
against a tyranny of the Shiite majority. It also needs a system that
encourages political alliances across religious and ethnic divisions. Because
the roots of the crisis are political, military intervention alone cannot
resolve it. Restitution should be made to Sunnis who lost everything in the
civil war of 2006 and 2007. More, Iraq needs a new prime minister, one willing
to be inclusive of the Sunni-Arab population.”
Juan Cole, historian at
the University of Michgan
_________________________
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