Saddam Hussein has been executed! It is an important footnote in history but it will not change anything in Iraq right now. Nobody is joyous about this except his Shiite enemies. There was not the brief euphoria on the American side that happened with his capture. On the other hand I don't think things will get much worse with his death. Well, it can't get much worse anyways. The Sunnis may step up their attack for a while, but they were going to attack anyway. The Shiites will go on taking revenge on the Sunnis. Al qaeda and everybody else don't need any more reason to attack Americans. So it will be business as usual. The only chance for dramatic change in the Middle East is to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict and we are far from accomplishing this.
We have to learn from our mistakes with the rise and fall of Hussein. Originally we supported the rise of his Baath party's rise to power in Iraq because the previous regime was pro-communist. The enemy of my enemy is my friend theory. After Hussein became a tyrant, we continued to support him because he was out to get the Shiites who were supported by Iran. Again the enemy of my enemy is my friend. We helped Hussein even when he used chemical and biological weapons against Iran and Shiites and Kurds in his country. This coziness with the dictator caused him to believe the U.S. will not stop him from taking parts of Kuwait. Of course now we are talking about the free flow of oil and so we stopped him. We should have finished him off during the first Gulf war but we didn't because the first Bush felt that we may need him still as a counterweight against Iran.
This theory of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" has not serve us well. From South Vietnam to Chile to the Talibans, the support of dictators ultimately cause us more problems. If we don't learn these lessions we will get into more mess in the future. In the name of fighting terrorism, will we support human right suppression by the Chinese government against Muslims in northwest China?
Saturday, December 30, 2006
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I was surprised at how fast he was executed. If the trial were in the U.S., I could see his execution taking months if not years to happen. There would be appeals and appeals of the appeals. And I was surprised that he did not show any remorse or any emotion for someone who's life was about to end. Maybe he was at peace with himself?
ReplyDeleteWho knows? I still think that the man was used as a scapegoat. How seriously was he a threat to the U.S.? We may never know, but I am sure there are greater threats out there. What should have been a huge victory for the administration was a pretty stoick event with Bush vacationing.
I agree with you on learning from our mistakes, but I have no confidence that this or any future administrations will do so. And unfortunately I think with the way the world is, we may never know who our enemies truly are. So who can you trust?
It's a little early but what are your thoughts about the upcoming presidential election?
I'm not real excited by any of the democrat candidates and this is the time for them bring someone into the race that can win.
Unless something drastic happens, I'm thinking that McCain will most likely be the republican candidate and I would think that he'd be tough to beat.
LBOAYM
I don't have any favorite for president at this time. I will probably write something about it in the next couple of months, depending on who officially declares. Obama is an exciting candidate so far but I think he is too inexperience. Although some polls that ask if one would vote for a black president, over 90% say yes, I don't think that is a true reflection of our country. If the question is "Do you think the country will elect a black president soon?", the number of yes will be down to about 50%. The first question implies you are racist if you answer no and the 2nd question implies if you think others are racist. So I don't Obama can win in 2008. You are right about no real exciting candidates. McCain's advocation for increasing troops in Iraq is an interesting political strategy. It is not as dumb as it sounds even though the results of the recent election would suggest otherwise. More on that soon!
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