I Wish We Had
The latest drivel from Lieberman:
“I hope Barack Obama goes to Iraq,” Joseph Lieberman, an independent U.S. senator from Connecticut, said on the CBS program today. “And frankly I hope he changes his position. Because if we had done what Senator Obama asked us to do, for the last couple of years, today Iran and al-Qaeda would be in control of Iraq. It would be a terrible defeat for us and our allies in the Middle East and throughout the world.”
“If we had done what Senator Obama asked us to do”? Well, let’s go back a few more years, shall we? If we had done what Senator Obama asked us to do back in 2002, which is not to start a “dumb war,” then we wouldn’t be in Iraq right now. Yes, Saddam Hussein would probably still be in power, but face the facts: under Hussein, Iraq was a more stable and peaceful place. Al Qaeda never would have seen its ranks swell, we could have concentrated on Afghanistan, probably would have captured bin Laden long ago and beaten back the Taliban, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis would not be dead, millions of Iraqis would not be refugees, Iran would not have any chance of influence in Iraq like they have now, there would be no civil war; as for the United States, we would not have 4113 dead American soldiers or tens of thousands wounded or so many suicides and broken lives, 150,000 or so American soldiers would be at home with their families, we would not have pissed away a few trillion dollars, and our reputation and influence in the world would be far, far stronger than it is now.
Yeah, Joe, let’s not listen to barack Obama.
Hmmmm… I rather doubt that “Iran and al-Qaeda would be in control of Iraq.” For one thing, I don’t believe that the Saudis and Syria would have permitted it.
Probably, if we had concentrated on Afghanistan and Bin Laden, Al Qaida probably wouldn’t exist anymore. And in regard to Iran, after 9/11, Iran was in full sympathy with the United States. It was Bush drawing a line, calling them the axis of evil that created extreme polarization between them and us – and denied us any positive influence with them.
Had we spent one tenth of what we are spending in Iraq on nation building in Afghanistan, it would be a prosperous modern successfully developing nation right now. With Iran pinned between two Islamic democracies (Turkey and Afghanistan) there would have been enormous internal presure for them to liberalize their society. With Pakistan pinned between two democracies (Afghanistan and India), there would be enormous pressure for it to liberalize as well. The result would be a string of developing democracies from Istanbul to Singapore.
And in this global movement towards liberalization, the United States would be the supreme leader.
It is hard to fathom the depths of the idiocy, or the lost opportunities squandered by Bush. It boggles the mind. Nero, Caligula and Commodious did less damage to Rome.
Nick:
Saudi Arabia may have oil, but it only has around 20 million people and there military has hardly ever fired a shot in anger. Syria has 10 million people and is totally impoverished. Iran has over 70 million people, a revolutionary doctrine to mobilize the masses and a military that at least knows combat. Unless Saudi’s can hire mercenaries (meaning us) Iraq, at least sourthern Iraq is theirs for the taking.
However creative diplomacy might allow Turkey to annex Kurdistan to their own, provided they were given autonomy. This is only marginally plausible. However, Turkey wants to be in the EU, and to get there they need stability. At the other end of the Mediterranean, Spain presents a model of floating point autonomy with several regions, Basque, Catalonia, Andulusia, sAutorias, any one of which might be acceptable to the Kurds, if it also gained them NATO security (as a part of Turkey) and EU prosperity.
Despite the presence of enormous oil reserves in Southern Iraq, the strategic ground for controling the Middle East west of Iran has been the area around eastern Turkey and northern Iraq.
The Sunni portion of Iraq, would have to form security alliances with the other portions of Sunni Arabia.
The upside is that none of these portions have the stones to check Iran. This might force a strategic alliance between Sunni Arabia and Israel after all.
That is what the new, post U.S. presence in the Middle East is going to look like – if we are lucky.