Sunny Days in Heaven
Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven


Monday, October 10, 2005  

Rules of engagement

One question that has not been very seriously analyzed out loud by the Bush administration is whether centrifugal forces of the various groups in Iraq is greater or lesser than centripetal ones.

Compare the forces that led to the United States after the American Revolution with those in Iraq. Or the forces in Germany that led to its unification. Even Switzerland with a population divided by three languages is an interesting study for comparison.

Now look at Turkey and its history with diverse groups. Everyone should know about the Armenians by now, but then there are the Greek Christian minority, and the Kurds. Not a happy place.

Imagine if Rhode Island of the thirteen colonies had somehow ruled over and brutalized the others. How welcome would it have been to be included when the others became free and desired unity?

We will be staying awhile in Iraq, no doubt. And we will create a functioning army and police dept.. The terrorists will be tamped down and the government will function to some extent although thoroughly corrupt and inept; but once the dust has settled for the most part, the centrifugal forces between the various parties and groups must inevitably lead to divided states.

Is it possible that the desire for oil money on everyone's part and the need to cooperate to get it to market will overcome divisions? It takes more than an economic benefit to peaceful coexistence to make natural enemies agreeable.

Nevertheless, despite the loss of initiative in the war on Islamofascists, we are killing a great many of them in Iraq, but we have failed to destroy Syrian and Iranian support for terrorism.

Are greater conflagrations necessary to quell rogue states like North Korea? I can't imagine South Korea ever acquiesing to a war which would result in many deaths for them.

We may eventually attempt to destroy Iran's nuclear program, but actually destroy the government? Not likely.

How to stop nuclear weapons proliferation? The Muslim nations want nuclear bombs. They will eventually get them. Our lack of will to use ruthless force now will very likely cost us dearly in the future. That is always the case.

Politicians by nature are vacillating. It's what makes them capable of forging compromises between various interests, but vacillators are the last thing a people need when faced with war.

Update


The good news is that North Korea may disintegrate without a shot being fired.

One can hope the same may occur in Syria and Iran, but wouldn't giving them a nudge help?

posted by Mark Butterworth | 9:20 AM |

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