I have no doubt in my heart that Saddam deserved his fate, no sympathy for him at all. I am angered at the statements his family made afterward calling him a " mytyr" and angried still that there were demonstrations after his execution. But those demonstrations made me realize that he had many supporters who were such of their own mind and not simply out of fear for him. So we have Sunni's, Shiites, Batthists, and Kurds that all want to run the country and none want to share power with the others. They all have centuries old scores to settle with each other and a hatred that runs so deep we as Americans cannot even begin to fathom it. In my mind, they only "stratagy" that could possible hope to resolve this conflict is total anniliation of all parties involved. Did not God obliterate Soddam and Gommorah as his only means of dealing with them ? Did not God create the Great Flood ? In an area where children are raised to hate from birth, there are no innocents. When women strap bombs to their chests to fulfill their desitiny in fight the Jihad there are no innocents. So what should we do ? This is not a war that can be won with foot soldiers and rifles. Not even a war that can be won with tanks and Bradley Fighting vehicles. This is a war that can only be won with superiorf fire power and superior technology. The question for all of us is " do we have the national will to create another Hiroshima ? " " Can we withstand the worldwide condemnation of another Nagasaki ? " If the answer to that is no, then accept that it is time to admit the entire war was a collosal blunder and get out as quickly as possible and leave these people to their own destinies.
B B
Good points, B B....
The military "portion" of this war in Iraq was won in a few months. The nearsightedness, and lack of understanding the consequences of removing the lid from Pandora's box which, right or wrong, had been held in place by a ruthless dictator, Saddam, is unforgivable. There can be no military victory in Iraq, given the situation now. The military victory has already been won. This is now a security/police function, with no end in sight. Nuking the whole bunch, while for each of us might be a gut reaction to solve the problem, is not an option anyone can pursue. We do not train our military to perform the function of policemen at this point in time. Perhaps a portion of the armed services should be better trained in that capacity, but the current administration did not plan past the end of their own nose, IMO, so here we are, bogged down in a situation where the very people we started out thinking we were going to help, are killing both our soldiers and each other because of political/nuances of religion/ethnic issues they have had with each other for hundreds and hundreds of years. The "liberal" press, Congress, and we as Citizens, should, and have the right to, question our leadership when there have been horrendous mistakes made in policy/procedure which continue to keep our brave men and women pinned down in a currently untenable situation. After the lines of battle have been blurred by the defeat of an enemies armed forces, the military role is no longer clearly defined. What is their job at this point? To go on patrol every day in a concrete and dirt jungle, scare up a few insurgents, shoot them or arrest them, get shot at, or worse, killed? Repeat this same behavior day in and day out for how long? To make that country stable at this point is not a military problem, it is a political one. How much money, and how many lives should be lost in the attempt to solve what is now tribal warfare between factions competing for power, and who obviously are not interested in "our" solution to "their" problems. Our presence is providing a focal point for various "causes", and a target for those who do not value their own lives, much less anyone else's.
There are no simple solutions to complex problems, and removing/replacing political/governmental structure in a divided country is about as complex as it gets....
I'm glad the SOB is dead, but I'm not sure of our methods of achieving that goal...there are easier/cheaper ways to get rid of individuals...perhaps we should have just killed the ones we knew were "bad", and let some others step up to the plate until we decided on somebody we could live with.