Quote:
Originally posted by bigrubberjeep
4th - Pick a smaller country with less political issues, help them get our of poverty, rebuild their infrastructure and raise them to point that we can say "This is what we can do for your country if you follow our plan"
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BRJ
We have had the perfect opportunity to do this in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, our Government has shown how much they really care about this model by grossly under-manning and under-funding the effort by moving on and siphoning the funding to Iraq without finishing the job. The worst part is that this was the legitimate battlefront on terror, and we are largely ignoring it. Tribal factions are again the norm, the Taliban is reorganizing, the pleas of our hand picked Government are being ignored and promises of financial help are being reneged on. We are set to repeat the conditions of post-Soviet Afghanistan all over again. Only you history scholars out there will see the relevance there and understand it. (A model that would certainly apply to Iraq, were it not for the oil.)
I don't think we will have any credibility in the world until we can:
1. Change our leadership. Like it our not, does anyone really believe that GWB can actually change International sentiment, ever, at this point? Be objective now!
2. Demonstrate that we can follow through on our commitment to the war on terror by finishing the job, and dedicating the needed resources to stabilizing and rebuilding Afghanistan like we promised.
3. Dedicating the proper man power and resources to eliminate Al-Queada, the real enemy and terror threat. Finding Usama would be a nice start.
At this point, all are a huge roll of the dice. My bet is that #1 will have to happen before #2 & #3 are seriously considered.