In 2008 Moktada al-Sadr asked his followers to bring violence and retribution upon the soldiers of the west that decide to stay after the 2011 deadline. He happens to be a very influential anti-American Shiite cleric. In 2010 Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki only got reelected for his second term as Prime Minister of Iraq with Mr. Sadr's support. I am okay with a country that we conquered wanting us out, I understand that. However do not ask us for shit, and understand that we conquered you, we set the terms not you. This arrogance though is not uncommon. Now the people behind the conqueror, side with the poor people of this misunderstood nation and tell us that they want us to leave. Well we the soldiers wanted to leave too, but we understood there was more that needed to be done. The people didn't ask us though, they just let the people of the conquered nation dictate our foreign policy.
Do I think Iraq can be fixed? Sure, but it would take generations. Its a culture thing there. Do I think our withdrawal at a later date would have been better then this, yes. Let me explain why, and hopefully some of the lazy stupid masses looking to have their votes bought and paid for by the corporate sponsored politicians will understand. You see an election is coming up, and they pull the troops out, they take the credit, and you the grateful masses ignore the other facts of life and vote for them. Do not be surprised when you see this as a ticket point for those running. You will not see the unemployment, but you will hear the promise of jobs. You will not hear them talk of the banks robbing the country, but you will hear them talk about all the troops being home for the holidays. Hallmark moment bought and paid for with 4,487 lives of military service members serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Over 32,000 were wounded, so the visible reminders are all around you. So get in line, put your vote in, and support the status quo. Watch them take credit for getting the troops home, just like people took credit for the boys in Seal team six and the work of the CIA that started at day one of this current iteration displaying this mighty military machine we have.
Now back to Iraq. This is a cultural issue plain and simple. You have a people that have been told they are the greatest since the days of Hammurabi. The hubris and arrogance has seeped and brewed for millennial measurements. Now add into the mix two narrow view religions, Shiite and Sunni flavors of the same hate manual. Take a lower level of education, poor literacy, and previous decades under a controlling dictator. Now you have a people that have been told they are awesome just because of where they are from, and untouchable because of the God they worship. This arrogance is stronger then the truth. You tell them its bad that they dump their waste in their drinking water, and they say what do you know? They tell us how old their civilization is and how little we know because we have not been around long enough. Here in lies the rub. This arrogance is as big as ours, just older and a bit more seasoned. So now we leave on their terms and expect them to play nice? This is not over, and we will be back or we will get another black eye. Time will tell though. Watch the news and let me know when you need me to pack my bags to engage in the third version of this worn out war. Just do me a favor though, when we go back let us finish the damn job.
I am only saying this now because we are still committed to Afghanistan. Do not let them wag the dog and spin you on there too. We can not back out until there is a stable, established government with the interest of the people in mind. The people need to trust us, and we can walk away when the time is right and they can stand on their own merit on the world stage. Watch the news though, and wait and see what happens in Iraq. See what happens to our influence there. Do not let our arrogance feed their mistakes. They will end up on our front porch. Please use wisdom and learn from the mistakes of others. Rolling into a country and giving them a bloody nose does not work anymore. It did not work for Germany, nor Japan. We occupied those countries for generations. We STILL have troops there. Almost seventy years later and we still have boots on the ground. Those countries we rebuilt, now Germany is the the corner stone of the European economy, and Japan blew by us in technological achievements and industry. Look at the countries we went into under the guise of stability, and pulled out. Iraq part one, Somalia, or any other African nation we hit the ground on. It takes time people.
You want to win. You build schools. You build infrastructure. You build national pride not religious or genetic superiority. You feed their children, and those children grow up grateful ready to run a new stable nation that does not have nearly as much hate in their eye for us. You run out the hate mongers and you provide them security to grow and learn. You do not kick them in the nuts and leave. That just gives them thoughts of coming back to kick us in the nuts. So have some damn resolve. Do not abandon the Afghan's. If we can continue to follow the Kardashians on the Jersey shore, why can't we actually do some damn good.
Do I think Iraq can be fixed? Sure, but it would take generations. Its a culture thing there. Do I think our withdrawal at a later date would have been better then this, yes. Let me explain why, and hopefully some of the lazy stupid masses looking to have their votes bought and paid for by the corporate sponsored politicians will understand. You see an election is coming up, and they pull the troops out, they take the credit, and you the grateful masses ignore the other facts of life and vote for them. Do not be surprised when you see this as a ticket point for those running. You will not see the unemployment, but you will hear the promise of jobs. You will not hear them talk of the banks robbing the country, but you will hear them talk about all the troops being home for the holidays. Hallmark moment bought and paid for with 4,487 lives of military service members serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Over 32,000 were wounded, so the visible reminders are all around you. So get in line, put your vote in, and support the status quo. Watch them take credit for getting the troops home, just like people took credit for the boys in Seal team six and the work of the CIA that started at day one of this current iteration displaying this mighty military machine we have.
Now back to Iraq. This is a cultural issue plain and simple. You have a people that have been told they are the greatest since the days of Hammurabi. The hubris and arrogance has seeped and brewed for millennial measurements. Now add into the mix two narrow view religions, Shiite and Sunni flavors of the same hate manual. Take a lower level of education, poor literacy, and previous decades under a controlling dictator. Now you have a people that have been told they are awesome just because of where they are from, and untouchable because of the God they worship. This arrogance is stronger then the truth. You tell them its bad that they dump their waste in their drinking water, and they say what do you know? They tell us how old their civilization is and how little we know because we have not been around long enough. Here in lies the rub. This arrogance is as big as ours, just older and a bit more seasoned. So now we leave on their terms and expect them to play nice? This is not over, and we will be back or we will get another black eye. Time will tell though. Watch the news and let me know when you need me to pack my bags to engage in the third version of this worn out war. Just do me a favor though, when we go back let us finish the damn job.
I am only saying this now because we are still committed to Afghanistan. Do not let them wag the dog and spin you on there too. We can not back out until there is a stable, established government with the interest of the people in mind. The people need to trust us, and we can walk away when the time is right and they can stand on their own merit on the world stage. Watch the news though, and wait and see what happens in Iraq. See what happens to our influence there. Do not let our arrogance feed their mistakes. They will end up on our front porch. Please use wisdom and learn from the mistakes of others. Rolling into a country and giving them a bloody nose does not work anymore. It did not work for Germany, nor Japan. We occupied those countries for generations. We STILL have troops there. Almost seventy years later and we still have boots on the ground. Those countries we rebuilt, now Germany is the the corner stone of the European economy, and Japan blew by us in technological achievements and industry. Look at the countries we went into under the guise of stability, and pulled out. Iraq part one, Somalia, or any other African nation we hit the ground on. It takes time people.
You want to win. You build schools. You build infrastructure. You build national pride not religious or genetic superiority. You feed their children, and those children grow up grateful ready to run a new stable nation that does not have nearly as much hate in their eye for us. You run out the hate mongers and you provide them security to grow and learn. You do not kick them in the nuts and leave. That just gives them thoughts of coming back to kick us in the nuts. So have some damn resolve. Do not abandon the Afghan's. If we can continue to follow the Kardashians on the Jersey shore, why can't we actually do some damn good.
No comments:
Post a Comment