Reply #28: grumpy old fart, you wrote ... [View All]

"If all we wanted was a secular Baath government, well, we toppled it two years ago didn't we?"

Who on this topic posited such a theory? With all due respect, I think you miss the point. The US and UK will use all parties that will support a US/UK puppet government within Iraq, including Sunnis, Shi'ites, and Kurds. It's called divide and conquer, and it will ensure that Allawi or another US stooge gets installed. Hey, it's freedom on the march, and the US will choose for any nation the appropriate form of democracy the US deems will serve its own best interests.

History gives us evidence of the US and UK using a divide and conquer policy throughout the world. To suggest that one should now ignore a concatenation of US, UK, and Israel policy in the ME over the past sixty years, and not even consider this involvement as a valid consideration in extending to events in Iraq today, is a rather specious and unfounded argument.

Not even the US government and CIA deny the dubious involvement they had within the ME. Neither does Israel.

Remember the role Israel had in selling arms to the Iranians during the 80's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra_Affair

The Israeli government approached the United States in August 1985 with a proposal to act as an intermediary by shipping 508 American-made TOW anti-tank missiles to Iran in exchange for the release of the Reverend Benjamin Weir, an American hostage being held by Iranian sympathizers in Lebanon, with the understanding that the United States would then ship replacement missiles to Israel. Robert McFarlane, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, approached United States Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and arranged the details. The transfer took place over the next two months.

Israel was actually selling arms to the Iranians prior to 1985 without US permission. The fear of Israel then was Iraq, and the Israeli government did not want Iran to win the war, only to keep Iraq at bay and the region in disarray.

Incidentally, it's my understanding that the US is seeking help from former Baathists to assist in the occupation. In addition, Rumsfeld was on record during a press conference over a year ago that the US would never accept a new Iraqi government with Shi'ite influence that could extend to Iran.