I have yet to see any clear plan from the Bush administration about how we are going to liberate the Iraqi people once we’ve demolished the current regime.
How are we going to ensure peace and stability in Iraq?
Well, you don’t read the news do you?
In and out in a year. A few billion from congress with the rebuilding contracts go to US companies.
The Iraqi people will love us so much that they will see the errors in their ways and continue with the work we have started, ending with the acceptance of Jesus and the purging of Allah.
[/sarcasm]
Just take the revolutionary guard and Saddam’s private army…and replace them with American troops.
Viola…liberation.
Nope you take Iraqi troops and turn them good, and then they become the police, and there you have it… Liberation!
The Bush administration plans to divide the country into three sectors, all reporting to retired US General Jay Garner.
Presumably, they’ll begin to establish a democracy and hold free elections, like they did in Afghanistan.
By ending the sanctions, ending the wars of aggression with neighbors, rebuilding infrastructure and making hte government much less repressive
Interesting sidelight on that. Anyone catch when Koffi Annan pointed out that when somebody “liberated” a country it was up to them to rebuild it? This was followed by a very, very slight change in US policy: the Iraqi oil wasn’t going to be held “in trust” for the Iraqi people, but would be devoted to to the reconstruction effort.
Cool. We bomb them, occupy them, and they get to pay for it.
Of course, before we can have free elections in Iraq, we will have to build a civil society. This could take a while. Might have to leave a few soldiers on guard, just to watch over things. Then, when we’re sure they won’t do anything really stupid, we can let them vote. Now of course, a truly civil society is a grateful society. Any truly democratic society will naturally be in complete accord with American principles, which is the very definition of democracy. They probably will want to repudiate those deals Saddam made with France. Oh, and Russia.
And they will probably be eager to pick up the tab for those contracts we signed for thier reconstruction. After all, thats what the oil is being held in trust for. Reconstruction. Oil money siphoned off to Haliburton/Brown and Root.
Quick! Take a wild guess! What political party do they contribute to? Times up!
I have been thinking for a long time that the best long term solution to the terrorism problem would be to educate the world. This seems to be a good place to get some feedback to help me flesh out my theory. I don’t know if it’s possible, but my thought is that the only way to stop terrorism is to stop the hatred. It’s my belief that much of the hatred in the world roots in ignorance. I wish we could somehow give large numbers of people knowledge of world history, access to current events publications from around the world, and some research skills (so they could verify that their teachers weren’t lying to them). I can’t think of any other way to (mostly) eliminate terrorism - short of eliminating humankind.
I would rejoice to hear that part of the “liberation” of Iraq included building a lot of schools. I would put that next in priority after food, shelter, reasonably non-corrupt police, and basic health care.
BTW, I’m ignoring the ambiguity of the word “we”.
I see upon rereading that the OP is “How will we” rather than “How should we”. To touch on that, I know that France wants to make sure we have no control of the “rebuilding”. I suspect that we will not be completely out of control, but that our largest role will be in eliminating as much of Suddam’s power structure as possible. After that, I don’t think anything has been set in stone - so this is the time to get in your ideas on how it “should” be done.
P.S. For those of you who may have noticed my lack of posts over the last many months, Vile still lurks in the shadows.
More specific details on the administration’s post-Saddam plans.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/02/24/sprj.irq.rebuilding.plan/index.html
http://www.state.gov/p/17616.htm
They don’t have all the nitpicky details spelled out chapter-and-verse yet, mainly because so much depends on the input of moderate Iraqis who have either been in exile or have been keeping their mouths shut at home. The administration is specifying that they’re going to ask for a lot of input from the Iraqis themselves, so they can’t give us any really detailed game plans for “Jeffersonian Democracy Iraq 2003”, just that Tommy Franks & Co. will be there to keep any tinpot dictator wannabes from getting any ideas in their heads, and that four civil administrators will be there to deal with the paperwork.
I loved this one (from the side bar in the article I linked previously):
“Imam Jer-i F’ahl Well issued a fatwah today against the Methodists…”