Viewpoint: Conservatives advocate big government solution to Iraq

Viewpoint: Conservatives advocate big government solution to Iraq
Ivan Eland

March 23, 2006

-- As the Iraq War enters its fourth year and the media reads the tea leaves to see if a "civil war" has officially begun, top officials of the Bush administration continue to try to spin their way to victory by using "happy talk".

Although public relations offensives are the way that wars are fought inside the capital beltway, the sectarian groups in Iraq aren't playing by the rules of Washington movers and shakers. The worsening civil war - in Bush administration euphemism, "sectarian violence" - is now more worrisome to the president's battlefield commanders than the Sunni insurgency.

While liberals insist that Iraq has plunged into civil war and conservatives continue to believe that the violence can only be quelled by a stronger Iraqi government, no one is looking at the important question of what direction future US policy should take.

A quick look at Iraq's history reveals that government intervention, beginning with the British government's meddling after World War I, is primarily responsible for the country's current problems.

.... snip ...
Yet the administration and many other conservatives, who would never embrace big government solutions at home, are proponents of strengthening the Iraq government. But to really be effective in holding the fractious Iraqi society together, the central government would probably have to resume Saddam-like dictatorial powers - something that no one wants.

http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060323-085535-4930r

An interesting article. I think perhaps I will be doing some more research into the history of the area this week. Anyone have some good history books to recommend on it?

It will happen anyway, unless another dictator comes along. We could help them agree on borders, carve the country up, and get the hell out and let the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis govern themselves.

...but here's a quick history from Wikipedia:


Basically the British tried to "control" Iraq until they were finally forced out in defeat. The internal conflicts are a legacy of how it was cobbled together after WWI, with no regard for the people who lived there and what they wanted or envisioned.

And then, of course, the US ushered Saddam into power.

Bush** would have done well to study British history in the area...or to listen to us liberals when we were shouting that invading Iraq would only open the door to foreign terrorists and civil war.

Yes Folks ----right here in Feb 2003 sadly those posts are gone.

I joined then

A few of us called DINOs like Limpmann and Biden losers.

Now look at the MESS

THEY VOTED FOR.