War Alternatives

2006-10-9 06:07:00

John C mentioned that the administration seems to be in a rut in the Iraq war. This brings up the natural question, what should we be doing there?

At the moment it matters not whether one believes it was right or wrong to go there. There is no way to go back into the past and undo it. We must press forward seeking positive results.

First let me say I can understand why the Bush administration has not taken a different course than they have now the conflict rages on. Any change of direction could be for the worse.

Here are the alternatives:

Withdraw as soon as possible - by this I mean months, not years.

This has several dangers associated with it:

Genocide and possible civil war.
A takeover by Iran which would give it enough oil reserves to become a much greater threat than it currently is.
Another tyrant could surface unfriendly to democratic nations.

Divide Iraq into three states.

One would be for the Shiites, one for the Sunnis and one for the Kurds. These three states would have a loose association similar to the states in the United States after its founding. Most governing power would be given to the states except for that reserved for a loose central government in Baghdad. The oil revenues would be shared among the three states, probably according to population.

This is an alternative being considered by the Bush administration, but there are a number of potential problems that make then hesitate. Some of the risks are:

There would be minorities in the divided states that would refuse to leave. They may be persecuted or killed.
There would probably be dissatisfaction over the division of oil revenues no matter how they are divided up. One group may try to take more than their share by force.
The Sunnis which were in power under Saddam Hussein have had central power for over 1000 years and are reluctant to divide it or give it up. This is the group that is presently behind much of the insurgency.

Even with these dangers this plan is gaining momentum and we may see a version of it being proposed by Bush in the near future.

Positively influence public opinion through the Iraqi and Islamic media.

We were attempting to do this some time ago. Our military was paying Iraqi writers to write positive things about the United States, democracy, goals for Iraq etc. At the time it seemed to have a positive effect, but when the press in the United States and the Democrats found out about it all hell broke loose. You would think we were doing a criminal act comparable to the Holocaust. The Bush administration was thus forced to discontinue the project.

Actually, I think this was an excellent idea, as long as what was published was true. Since we are given about 99 percent bad press through the Islamic media, paying for a couple percent of positive press seems only fair. Both sides of issues need to be presented to the common people in Iraq and other Islamic nations. They need to be told that we are not their enemy, but seek to help them.

We need to spend whatever it takes to present some positive news through newspapers, radio and television - as well as Islamic internet sites. This would probably be the most productive money we have spent on the war.

Dumb item of the day:
In Fort Worth Texas Sunday they had a jalapeno pepper eating contest and the winner ate 247 of them. Many others ate almost as many. It's hard to imagine one could stay alive after eating that much.