Saddam Hussein captured in Iraq

[ZeaLitY]

Yes, I can.

[FaustWolf]

Thought, thank you very much for the research on contemporary reports of Dr. Blix's testimony in 2003. You even gave me a source for a paper I'm writing!

Yeah, I also thought we'd be able to handle Iraq "because we did it with Germany and Japan." In retrospect, it would have been best if we'd stuck with focusing our goody-two-shoes efforts on Afghanistan. Our efforts divided among two countries we're supposedly trying to help, both plans for democratization have serious risk of failure.

[ZeaLitY]

And is there any doubt to the central role of religion in complicating the occupation of Iraq?

[FaustWolf]

Religious differences certainly are one root of the problem; Sunnis and Shi'ites never should have been stuffed into the same artificial country. Imperialist idiocy is the other root...Sunnis and Shi'ites never should have been stuffed into the same artificial country. Who the hell made that decision, and when? The Brits after World War I? The French got Syria if I'm not mistaken.

I think one of the reasons Japan and Germany went so well was that the populations there were fairly homogenous. The Nazis drove out or exterminated minoritiy groups in their ridiculous effort to "purify" the German nation, and the Japanese were, well, Japanese. It's safe to say that many, many other factors came into play, but lack of extreme factional strife in the occupied territories certainly didn't hurt.

[ZeaLitY]

Ah, yes, cultural heterogeneity...

Bleah, what a mess it all is, like some caustic salad of ethnic groups and conflicting belief systems. I think DK put the cost per minute of the occupation at $220,000 now.

[FaustWolf]

Normally I'd say something like, "Well, shucks, I don't want my taxpayer dollars being put to such uses," but the money is just being borrowed from other countries or something no doubt. We're so far down the hole nowadays that it's the taxpayer dollars of Americans living hundreds of years from now that will still be paying for this.

[Radical_Dreamer]

Which makes it even worse. This is becoming a generation mess, and all for nothing. The waste alone disgusts me.

[placidchap]

Out of curiosity, was the majority of the forum regulars, for or against the war back when it started?  Did anyone think that is was more oil driven than the idea of spreading democracy? I started lurking here in 2005, so I was a bit late to any thread party that discussed yay or nay for war.  If you did or do think it was for the better of the people and we were the "knight on the White Horse", what do you think of the Darfur situation and the lack of both media and US government attention it has been given?

[ZeaLitY]

I think the idea that "wow, a country is going to have a free democracy now" is pretty attractive to everyone, so it was easy to rationalize the war until the staggering costs and difficulties in the occupation became apparent. Still, the leaders in charge of the entire thing shouldn't have been naive when it came to expecting easy change in a country so ethnically conflicted. They would have known about that, whereas the average American might not be an expert on the complexities of Sunni versus Shi'ite versus Kurd.

[Burning Zeppelin]

The fact that Sunni and Shi'ites are fighting is reason alone to bomb the crap out of them.

[Blackcaped_imp]

The fact that Sunni and Shi'ites are fighting is reason alone to bomb the crap out of them.

Wait, what? Are you being serious? Are you being sarcastic? Are you out of tolerance? Don't you respect people's problems? (they do not touch you man).

I really hope you're being some kind of sarcastic about the republican way here.

[ZeaLitY]

Don't you respect people's problems?

What part of suicide bombing should command anyone's respect? Yeah, saying you should just bomb something is stupid and reminiscent of jingoistic Americans, but they're already doing it to each other.

INTERESTING NOTE: George Harrison, the most spiritual Beatle who played the sitar and practiced meditation, said "they should drop a bomb on Manila" after his time in the Philippines.

[BROJ]

The fact that Sunni and Shi'ites are fighting is reason alone to bomb the crap out of them.

Wait, what? Are you being serious? Are you being sarcastic? Are you out of tolerance? Don't you respect people's problems? (they do not touch you man).

I really hope you're being some kind of sarcastic about the republican way here.

If they had the facilities to do so to us, they would sooner consider doing it to us than us doing it to them. Besides This is *WAR*  not some friendly game of chess (remember why the British were able to be defeated so easily during the Revolutionary War ), this is the same kind of thing thats keeping us in Afghanistan all these years... And are you talking tolerance to people (terrorists, not the general populace) who care nothing of it? Just remember they could care *less* about our problems at any rate.

What part of suicide bombing should command anyone's respect? Yeah, saying you should just bomb something is stupid and reminiscent of jingoistic Americans, but they're already doing it to each other.

I agree completely.

[Blackcaped_imp]

FINE.
I just hope and desire from the bottom of my heart that you people never have to live a situation of violence like that one in your streets, and do not have to suffer intolerance in your own flesh, and I'm not being sarcastic.

[Burning Zeppelin]

The fact that Sunni and Shi'ites are fighting is reason alone to bomb the crap out of them.

Wait, what? Are you being serious? Are you being sarcastic? Are you out of tolerance? Don't you respect people's problems? (they do not touch you man).

I really hope you're being some kind of sarcastic about the republican way here.

I wasn't being completely serious, but the reason I said what I did was because seperatist Iraqis are stupid enough to believe that there is difference between Sunni and Shi'ite.