Too many Americans believe America has to step back and let nature take its course. That is both ignorant and wrong. Letting “nature” take its course is what we did to Cuba, and it is still around, in its natural pristone condition.

Iraq, in terms of US power, is an unnatural creation of the British Empire and a sustained unnatural creation through force of history, nationality, and American iron will.

The US is the only thing keeping Iraq together. We are the only one able to convince the Kurds to give reunification a chance, to give nationalism a chance. We are the only ones that can convince the Sunnis that they won’t be purged later on. We are the only ones that can convince the Shia to allow Sunnis into the government and back into power because the Shia knows that any Sunni coup will be defeated by us.

The United States holds too much power and too much responsibility for any policy maker, for any citizen, and for any soldier to say “it is up to the Iraqis now, we’ll just step back and let them do the rest”.

On that path lies disaster and dishonor.

What does that mean?

It means the British need to crack down on the Shia corruption and carry their damn weight in the Coalition. We have allies so that we do the heavy lifting, and everything else gets neglected… I don’t think so.

Nobody’s asking the British to charge into cities, take control, and hunt down terroists with their conventional forces. What we do ask is that they make sure we don’t lose Basra while we gain Fallujah, Mosul, and Baghdad.

Just for poop and smiles, it’d be neat if you’d take a more psychological look at this episode, only because it seems like hearts and minds will control the next step.

This is a tough time for analysts because we are at a crossroads, and it’s not up to us. We don’t have control here. It’s up to the Iraqis, and we hope that will all the ups and downs, we’ve done enough.

My fear is the Sadrists. In the US, we’ve marginalized extremist groups like the KKK in the political process. The Sadrists have been billed as rejectionist of this democracy-building project. It seems that the Sadrists have made a strong showing in this election. What does that mean?

Eric

Don’t we have a ‘black’ constituency? Latino? Jewish? or even tribes by advocacy and interest..NRA, AFL-CIO

To make a democracy work (Japan excepted), unpleasant compromises of both ideology and practicality are required of various highly dissimilar groups.

We can’t do this for the Iraqis.

They will rise to this, or sink to something else and solve it ( a la articles of confederation period) or they won’t, or they will become three nations and then the Sunnis WILL be totally screwed.

As usual the critical progressives and their overseas think alikes demonstrate the patience of 3 year olds.

Instead Saddam ruled through local proxies, the power of the tribes, and criminal networks. Like one big mafia family, with connections and Secret Police everywhere.

Tribes, responsible for their families and nothing else in their view, cut a deal. So did a lot of criminals, to get in on the action.

Releasing all those criminals from jail might even have been a deal to the tribes of the criminals, to get support for his jihad while Bush delayed American security at the UN.

But I do know that Sheiks were certainly in power and present before the overthrow of Saddam.

Trying to “manage” the local governmance, however, probably smacked too much of American Imperialism for Bush and Bremer to tolerate. So they probably tried to avoid that part as much as possible.

A good patchup solution would have been obvious of course. Tell the Sheiks of the most violent regions to step down or be executed, replace them with American commanders, and then make that American commander responsible for the civilian infrastructure and military security.

That would have been quite an effective strategy, a bunch of warlords loyal to America and the best we have. That would have increased respect for America, gained cooperation from Sunnis and any number of other benefits early on.

Bush wanted to do it the hard way, shrugs, he is the CinC. His decision is ultimate.

There are stories about military sergeants nominated as Sheiks.

Under the tribal system, we could have easily reinforced it not by violating local customs, but by adapting to and assimilating them.

What American troops do when they go into villages, for reconstruction, and medical aid, is no different than what a Sheik does. And we actually had the military power and money to back up our promises.

Trying to work with “local corrupt” potentates that thought Saddam was a day away from getting back into power… took quite a bit of time.

While it is true that the Sword is less flexible than the Pen, it is also true that with enough skill you can use a Sword to shave, cut your hair, ambutate a limb, execute a criminal, cut wood, and write with. Not well, of course, but still. Well enough until real democracy could take hold.

They did do that. Lots of municipalities got to try out democracy on a local level. i don’t have links right now but I know we did that.

here.

Then I got pissed.

I seriously find it amusing that the “experts in diplomacy” fail to grasp the fundamental basics someone like me, a Jacksonian, grasps so easily and obviously.

To accrue strength in unity, one must have a commonality, a grass roots thing reaching back into time immemorial.

Perhaps humans are not so much different from other humans as the Democrats wish us to believe.

And so long as Iraq has an AK-47 in every household, and they maintain security and American support, then that crucial liberty may be maintained and used as the foundation for all the others.

How dumb do they think I am anyways…

What Friedman misses is that tribalism and the honor code were the very things that united and strenghtened America in our divisive and troublesome history. And it will do the same thing to Iraq, so long as they do not fragment for lack of support.

As for Sistani, people really have to remember that Islam has a lot of factions. Among them are Sunnis, Shias, and Sufis. Among others I can’t name at the moment. The Sufis are very tolerant, and so are the Shia, and neither are like the radical brand of Shia that Khomeni represents. Nor is the radical fundamentalist brand of Sunnism that Osama represents, a guilty sentence against the majority of Sunnis in Saudi Arabia or Iraq.

I seriously find it amusing that the “experts in diplomacy” fail to grasp the fundamental basics someone like me, a Jacksonian, grasps so easily and obviously.

To accrue strength in unity, one must have a commonality, a grass roots thing reaching back into time immemorial. For the Japanese, it is Shintoism, a brand of ancestor worship and duty. For the US, it is the Constitution and the Founding Fathers. For Iraq, it is their religion and their tribal method of governance.

That is what Bush means when he says their democracy will be “different”. Their strengths are not ours, anymore than our strengths are the Polish’s or the Jew’s.

Why does everyone assume that the Shia and Sunni cant work together in Iraq?

It is convenient and consistent with their pessimism and hopes.

I find articles from 1915, say, to be written to a higher standard. Maybe the audience was expected to be better educated.

The media did dumb their stories down, because they thought it would gain a wider readership. This is representative of how many journalists have MBA diplomas.

2. They aren’t like us, since we cant really relate, the first knee jerk is to expect the worst.

That is where most people are wrong, they are like us. In all the things that matter. But because it requires a calculated education on the nature of America and an education in the culture of the Middle East, finding the points of congruence is very hard and rare.

I myself do not know enough about Iraqi culture to analyze the similarities. But It can be done, say, with Japan. And they are as different a culture to ours as any. The Japanese treats their ancestors and their superiors, much as we treat the Constitution and the Founding Fathers. With respect, with reverence, and anything we do is tied directly to what has gone before. Our duty, to the Constitution, is clear. Japan’s duty to the Emperor previously, and to their parents now, are obviously the same things.

Its almost like you have to mentally fight it.

It’s a psychological battle you wage, against the morale killing propaganda of the media. In a war, propaganda and the psychology of the enemy are two of the most important elements to victory.

My tribe, American Jews, tends to vote overwhelmingly for one particular side on most issues.

Kuwaitt is governed by a ruling tribe as their Prime Minister. Iraq is governed locally by Sheiks and tribes with militias.

Yet why do Americans, if we are so different from Iraqis, also think in terms of “tribes” and use that archaic terminology?

Perhaps humans are not so much different from other humans as the Democrats wish us to believe.

The Sunni complaint about the vote only proves the power of Television. They have been watching the whiners (aka democrats) and think that there is no way they can lose an election.

The Taliban did the same thing in Afghanistan, and so did the opposition in Afghanistan decry fake election results.

Make no mistake, Democratic propaganda just feeds the ego of our enemies. But I guess they aren’t worried about that part.

But the most important democratic freedoms are: free speech (press) and free religion.

Unlike Jeffersonians, Jacksonians like me believe that the msot important democratic freedom is the 2nd Ammendment in the Bill of Rights, not the First.

And so long as Iraq has an AK-47 in every household, and they maintain security and American support, then that crucial liberty may be maintained and used as the foundation for all the others.

The raw material is definitely there. It just has to be shaped.

Keep up your neo-con ideas but someday you may realise that you as part of the USA cannot keep hating over September 11.

It is a great psychological wound the world has, when free countries elicit nothing but depression and hopeless in people like Tony.

But that is why ultimate power rests in the US’s hands, and not the world’s.

He associates hate of 9/11 with I would just like to say that it is so heartening to know that the USA likes democracy so much that it will spend Billions of dollars and thousands of its own lives to impliment and defend it in such a far off country like Iraq.

Cognitive dissonance, as anyone can clearly see.

The same political philosophy that advocated war after 9/11 is the same political philosophy that provides the man power and the will to fight in Iraq.

That philosophy is called Jacksonianism. And one of the few specific ways to win over that school of thought, is a surprise attack that kills Americans.

Re-reading Meade’s article on it, really helps make America’s foreign policy a consistent creature in historical terms.