Before they became disillusioned with the process....
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| Home Front: WoT |
| Bush wrong on Iraq: Rumsfeld |
| 2015-06-10 |
| [Iran Press TV] Former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld says his commander-in-chief, George W. Bush, was wrong to push "democracy" on Iraq. It was a case of trying to fit ballet slippers on a horse, but if it had worked it would have put an outpost of rationality in the heart of the world of non-reason, or more accurately anti-reason. "I'm not one who thinks that our particular template of democracy is appropriate for other countries at every moment of their histories. The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic," Rumsfeld said in a wide-ranging interview with The Times of London. Rumsfeld, one of the chief architects of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, said he became "concerned" when he first heard the idea of a democratic Iraq, floated by former president Bush. The former Pentagon chief also criticized President Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it... 's approach towards the ISIL terrorist group, controlling large parts of Iraq and Syria. "The movement for a caliphate, the movement against nation states is central and fundamental, and no one's talking about it," Rumsfeld said, referring to the ISIL's self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #11 Or...we could have just *won* first, completely, and overwhelmingly. THEN, and only then, would what would have been left of Iraq had in any interest in participating in a democracy. You can't have lunatic opposition leadership still alive, comfortable, and in charge of vast swatches of the population and expect our notion of "democracy" to have any chance of succeeding there. We should *won* first...and then taken care of the "hearts and minds" of those that we determined were fit to remain alive. Half-assed "wars" with no real objective other than breaking things never amount to much once the smoke clears. |
| Posted by: Crusader 2015-06-10 16:26 |
| #10 Assuming we just installed a MacArthur how would that have been different? If we put up a dictatorship who? How brutal would we allow them to be to keep the lid on the monkey-house? I don't think there is a level of brutality that would work that the US population would be comfortable with in this day and age of agitators and partisans. Which gets us back to attempting Democracy, dividing it up, or just busting up the place without attempting to occupy, or continuing the status quo. No solutions were very good. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2015-06-10 14:34 |
| #9 Still, there were a lot of Iraqis happy to vote for the first time. Before they became disillusioned with the process.... |
| Posted by: Bobby 2015-06-10 13:25 |
| #8 I really don't believe arabs have democracy in their DNA |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet al-Doomi 2015-06-10 09:36 |
| #7 How about pushing for 'democracy' at home against the oligarchy? Of course you'd have to admit to the latter first which is a big no-no for the oligarchs as it might upset the rubes. Bread and games proles. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-06-10 08:47 |
| #6 "The movement for a caliphate, the movement against nation states is central and fundamental, and no one's talking about it," Nothing new here. Ethno-religous conflict has been going on for millenia. 'The Caliphate' is merely a label on Sunni Arab resistance to Shiite domination. For years the media peddled the same - they may be Sunni/Shiia/Kurd/etc, but they are first and foremost Iraqi or Syrians or Yemenis. It thought it was bollocks at the time and so it was. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2015-06-10 05:38 |
| #5 Democracy can only work for a single "demos". In Iraq there are several. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2015-06-10 04:45 |
| #4 All is well that ends well, Mr Rumsfield. And Arabs ceasing to pretend that they're anything but a bunch of murderous sociopaths is well. Now, can you figure some way for the Western leftards to show their true colors? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-06-10 00:55 |
| #3 Point taken, Besoeker - I didn't know that about him & his crew. |
| Posted by: Raj 2015-06-10 00:38 |
| #2 |
| Posted by: 2015-06-10 00:34 |
| #1 Rummy - I like you, so I trust you brought these concerns to his attention at the time, right? |
| Posted by: Raj 2015-06-10 00:26 |