# Ok, what can we do to win hearts and minds in Iraq? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 31, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-can-we-do-to-win-hearts-and-minds-in-iraq/262340 "2004-08-31T01:19:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-can-we-do-to-win-hearts-and-minds-in-iraq/262340/41 "2004-09-01T14:50:27Z")
> [@ITR champion](#): > > . > A useless question, because we can’t do that. The Shi’ite majority supports Sistani, a man who believes in implementing Islamic law, not in deomcratic government. So given the choice they would elect Sistani, and then support him when he tried to knock down democratic institutions and give himself absolute power. > . Actually, Sistani wouldn’t “give himself absolute power”, and wouldn’t even be elected, because he’s highly oposed to mixing religious leadership and political power. Not that he wouldn’t want a government that would enforce Islamic law, or courts headed by islamic judges, but he thinks that political power is by nature corrupting, hence that clerics should stay away from it. From this point of view he’s an anti-Khomeyni. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-can-we-do-to-win-hearts-and-minds-in-iraq/262340/42 "2004-09-01T15:17:16Z")
[aside] I heatrily recommend this article in the current _Harpers_ entitled “Baghdad Year Zero: Pillaging Iraq in Pursuit of a Neocon Utopia” by Naomi Klein. If only half what she says is true, its damning. If it’s _all_ true…oh, Lordy, let’s hope not. [/aside] ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-can-we-do-to-win-hearts-and-minds-in-iraq/262340/43 "2004-09-01T15:29:07Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > [aside] I heatrily recommend this article in the current _Harpers_ entitled “Baghdad Year Zero: Pillaging Iraq in Pursuit of a Neocon Utopia” by Naomi Klein. If only half what she says is true, its damning. If it’s _all_ true…oh, Lordy, let’s hope not. [/aside] Here’s a more prestigious (sorry el lucidato) reccommendation of that article [**Periodical Articles for Current Awareness**](http://carlisle-www.army.mil/library/bibs%5Cseppac.htm) _Compiled by Virginia C. Shope U.S. Army War College Library Carlisle Barracks, PA 1 September 2004_ **Iraq** Elis, Hadi. “The Kurdish Demand for Statehood and the Future of Iraq.” Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies 29 (Summer 2004): 191-209. **Klein, Naomi. “Baghdad Year Zero: Pillaging Iraq in Pursuit of a Neocon Utopia.” Harper’s Magazine 309 (September 2004): 43-53.** Parenti, Christian. “Fables of the Reconstruction: The Effort to Rebuild Iraq Looks Less Like an Aid Mission Than a Criminal Racket.” Nation 279 (30 August-6 September 2004): 16-20. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-can-we-do-to-win-hearts-and-minds-in-iraq/262340/44 "2004-09-01T15:40:17Z")
Oh, I suppose its more prestigious because some smart-ass with font skills and coloration ability says so? A _self-confessed_ Republican, I hasten to point out, mocking the sincere if unpolished efforts an earnest and unassuming country boy… grouse, grumble, bitch… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-what-can-we-do-to-win-hearts-and-minds-in-iraq/262340.md?page=2)