Quote:
Originally posted by Shaun 84 Targa
in Iraq, power is consolidated and then used in the Shiite vs. Sunni civil war. AQ is an unwanted 3rd party, nothing more. AQ wasn't germane to iraq, but came in only after seeing what a great recruitment tool it could be. They are essentially getting in the way of the Sunni-Shiite 3000 year old battle. Combine that with the Iraqi government achieving nothing in the last 2 years and you have some feel good moments in a big picture of crap.
You need to stop thinking Iraqi's are like us and appreciate our help. They like us only because we are doing their heavy lifting, and it is on our backs, and our young men's lives that they are building their own powerbases from which to wage war on each other.
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Shaun, what you've written here makes a lot of sense as far as Sunni-Shiite hatred and Arab-American love/hate. But I am hoping that AQ is using Iraq and Afghanistan as a last stand. I believe AQ is focusing their attentions and recruiting here to thwart any furthur expansion of a pluralistic secular/theocratic type rule.
Having lived in the ME for awhile, I can say that you are correct in the fact that they aren't like us. However, I believe there are enough non-hardline muslims to make a functioning society.
There may always be Sunni-Shiite hatred, much like Protestant-Catholic conflicts in Ireland.
I still think that pulling out will do more harm than good. If we could seal off the border of Syria and Iran (and Mexico), and get the Iranians to stop funding and arming Al qaida, I believe we could still salvage something out of our losses of men and money.