Who Are America's Real Allies?

Chrisild
The Iran/Iraq policy was actually a good one. We have two nations that are our foes who are fighting each other. Why not supply arms to both in order to let them bleed each other out and hopefully a change would then come from within. The only problems were that the leader of Iran died to soon and Oliver North and others decided to fill their pockets. The policy decision was good, however, some of the people running the operation went bad.

 

the policy is/was NOT good.

A good policy in wars that do not involve you or your allies can only involve huminitarian efforts such as medical attention or food/water supplies to non-combatant civilians.

Selling arms to both sides is not only bad policy, it's subhuman in character and morally wrong.

 

That sounds nice
but is it not better to have your enemies fight each other then to fight your enemies.
And wouldn't it be great if during the course of your enemies battles the more radical die out and a door for reason opens up and your enemies might then become your friend.

Who knows if that war had lasted longer perhaps the cerlics would have been kicked out of Iran and right back to France and Hussian might have lost his power base and his power.

 

Seems you watch too many WW2 movies.

Christian

 

Sounds basically good. One potential problem is the (in)famous "collateral damages" though ...

Christian

 

On the question of why we did not take him out the 1st time round I am sorry to say that rest's squarly on GW senior's shoulders, Thatcher wanted him to authorise a coup as did the millitary but his advisers were against the idea as it might upset the balance of power in the region. Hell there was a major uprising and we sat back and watched the poor buggers been masacred
I have to agree that most of the reasoning for the invasion did not hold water as I can remember Tony Blaor standing up in Parliment assuring us that Iraq could be cabaple of firing a WMD in 8 mins flat And Bush linking him to Al Quaida, Sadam would have happily handed every last one of them over to us dead or alive he hated them and they him.
Thw only Germans who might have trained Sadams army would have been Russian backed as they were his main supplier of wepons, W German forces stop'd in Europe so sorry to say that argument is a bit out of the ball park mate
We Brits send advisers all round the globe as do the French, Spanish yourselfs and Russians (Mainly Cuban & Angolan before the fall)

De Orc

 

Protecting democracy and ensuring a safer world do not go hand in hand. Any intelligent person knows that democracies are very bad forms of government. The United States isn't a democracy anyway, neither is Great Britain. American citizens do not say, "I pledge allegiance... ...to the ? for which it stands." Right now it says Republic, so unless you know something I don't...

CraigG

Answer: 1.
Question: How many psychics does it take to change a lightbulb?

 

Definiton of Republic, which is the type of democracy we have.

Noun
S: (n) democracy, republic, commonwealth (a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them)
S: (n) republic (a form of government whose head of state is not a monarch) "the head of state in a republic is usually a president"

Of course we do not have a pure democratic system, that can not work with a large body of population, but rather a democratic system where we hire by voting people to represent our interests in the political system and if we feel that those people are not representing us the way we like then we vote someone else in thier place. Of course that someone else could be any qualified american citizen based upon age and legal standing.

 

Most of the fighting was done in the border cities and desert but if the Iraq/Iran war did become more protracted I am sure that the collateral damages would have increased. War sucks and I am not a fan of it. When I speak of military actions I am not defending war but feel that it is better to defeat an enemy or manipulate an enemy who can not be reasoned with when you still can.

In most cases enemys can be reasoned with over time. USA-USSR, NATO-WARSAW PACT, but when it comes to a religious nature. How can one reason with a people who believe that their god wants them to kill us and it is their duty to do so or they are not good muslims. Just stating the Koran and powerphasing various leaders of the arab world. Why Iran just had a conference on Jihad attended by their so called president.

Of course I prefer manipulation thru bringing democracy into the region. We need to weaken the power of Islam in that it is the only brain wave in that part of the world. Get the women there rights and the youngest children will follow. Of course this can not be done without a military presence for why would abdul want to give up his three wifes for one and go to hell for it as well. generally speaking.

 

A "republic" is in my opinion primarily the absence of a king/monarch. The term "democracy" is more complex indeed, which is why you often add attributes such as "direct democracy" or "parliamentary democracy". The US is a republic and a democracy, the UK is a kingdom and a democracy. But certainly not every country that formally is a republic is also a democracy. Not quite sure how this differentiation works in Greek though where AFAIK "dimokratia" means both democracy and republic ...

Christian

 

"The US is a republic and a democracy",Christian.
Right on the mark Christian. That was Abe Lincolns point with his Gettsyburg Address speech.

The greeks had slaves and so did my country until we evolved away from that sin.
Perhaps Democracys are works in progress based upon the times and the amount of populace that is governing and at the same time needs to be governed.

 

There you have the first (?) problem - in mostly Islamic societies there is no consensus at all about what rights a woman should have. Young women in Istanbul, for example, are quite different in many regards from women in "urban" Saudi Arabia or Iran. One problem we have in most societies, however, is that at certain times and under certain conditions people may resort to "traditional values".

Finding the right balance of, on one hand, supporting democratization in Islamic countries without, on the other hand, appearing like some intruder with a one-size-fits-all model for the rest of the world will be very difficult. And as for those Muslims who live in countries that are not primarily Islamic, well, it is quite frustrating to see that nowadays more second/third generation immigrants than before practice some kind of "voluntary" segregation. Obviously integrating these people did not work well, be it France, Germany, the Netherlands, etc. These younger Muslims living here learned that adapting (to some extent) like their parents did not result in better acceptance, and the conclusions that some among them have drawn are not encouraging ...

Christian

 

Did you know that Turkish women had the vote before Swiss Women did and they were the 1st in Europe also Turks are not Arabs Under Kemil Attaturk the country was dragged into the 20th Century, and he abolidhed the link between state & clergy.
Just a little digression

De Orc