Potemkin wrote:This is why any attempt to impose "freedom" and "democracy" on the Middle East by force of arms is either idiotic or dishonest, and is doomed to failure in either case. There's no guarantee the people are going to vote the way you want them to vote. And clearly, if the people don't vote the way we want them to, then the elections are 'invalid' and we must restore 'order' by invading them. Lol.
It reminds me of Brecht's cynical quip after a workers' uprising was violently suppressed in East Germany in 1956: "The government has lost confidence in the people, and must therefore elect a new one!"
Leaving Saddam in power was idiotic.
How much longer should we have given Saddam to create and independent middle class?
How much longer should we have given Saddam to reverse and heal the growing sectarian divide in Iraq.
Should we have waited for Saddam to die, in the hope that Uday would develop and heal Iraq?
I'm the left's nightmare, a Centrist with memory.You see I remember the spring of 2003 and the lefties weren't worried that Iraq would be a failure, they were worried that the Americans would be welcomed as liberators as they were in Grenada, Panama, Bosnia and Kosovo. They were worried that Iraqis would see the Americans as freedom fighters, like the Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Romanians, Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians. I said don't worry no one will be thanking America for invading Iraq. The American Jew Madeline Albright had said the sacrifice of half a million Iraq children was worth it. That cost fell mostly on Iraq's Shia, I was pretty confident that there wouldn't be much gratitude on display. I said that America would invade hand power to the Iranian allied Shia and leave.
I was right and nearly everyone else was wrong.Of course it would be cretinous to expect instant Liberal democracy, but it was obvious to me that majority Shia ruled Iraq would allow the population to evolve towards secularism under majority rule as the Iranian populace has done under the post 79 Shia government. Similarly with Kurdish autonomy.