Some questions for the home stretch
Remember Mad magazine when you were a kid? One of my favorite sections was called "Questions we wish we'd asked." Here's a few questions you can have fun with should you encounter a member of the "stay the course in iraq," or even the "cut and run" caucus:
1. Could you please tell me, sir/madame, how more Iraqi army and security troops are going to help our efforts if those troops are overwhelmingly Shiite in ethnic composition? If the basic conflict there is Sunni-Shiite, as everyone says it is, how are Shiite police and army personnel going to "help" us in Sunni areas, like Baghdad province? How?
2. How will all those inky fingers and voting empower the "elected government of Iraq," root out Shiite death squads in the police and army and put an end to Sunni insurgent violence? What are the tools at their disposal to do this, exactly? How will "voting" and "democracy" solve these problems? Do tell!
3. If Senator Biden's "federal" Iraq is on the table for discussion, how will the Congress, the President and the world force Shiites to share oil revenues with Sunnis, or convince Sunnis to accept minority status in a Shiite state, when they enjoyed leading status in Saddam's Iraq for no rational reason? And how will you keep the Sunni neighboring states from intervening on their behalf, in order to strike a blow at their rival, Iran?
4. Do you have a strategy for dealing with a sudden declaration of Kurdish independence? In view of Turkey and Syria's violent opposition to this, can you prevent, or forstall, a regional conflict? Are not our armed forces stretched to the breaking point already?
5. Are you serious when you say that "our enemies will follow us here" if we "cut and run?" Do you really believe Sunnis and Shiites will come to these shores and attack American citizens? And if anyone did come here, wouldn't we have a better chance of beating them here, instead of in the Baghdad slums or the desert??
Inquiring minds want to know, because no one asks or addresses these issues in this admittedly crucial pre-election runup, least of all the President of the United States.
1. Could you please tell me, sir/madame, how more Iraqi army and security troops are going to help our efforts if those troops are overwhelmingly Shiite in ethnic composition? If the basic conflict there is Sunni-Shiite, as everyone says it is, how are Shiite police and army personnel going to "help" us in Sunni areas, like Baghdad province? How?
2. How will all those inky fingers and voting empower the "elected government of Iraq," root out Shiite death squads in the police and army and put an end to Sunni insurgent violence? What are the tools at their disposal to do this, exactly? How will "voting" and "democracy" solve these problems? Do tell!
3. If Senator Biden's "federal" Iraq is on the table for discussion, how will the Congress, the President and the world force Shiites to share oil revenues with Sunnis, or convince Sunnis to accept minority status in a Shiite state, when they enjoyed leading status in Saddam's Iraq for no rational reason? And how will you keep the Sunni neighboring states from intervening on their behalf, in order to strike a blow at their rival, Iran?
4. Do you have a strategy for dealing with a sudden declaration of Kurdish independence? In view of Turkey and Syria's violent opposition to this, can you prevent, or forstall, a regional conflict? Are not our armed forces stretched to the breaking point already?
5. Are you serious when you say that "our enemies will follow us here" if we "cut and run?" Do you really believe Sunnis and Shiites will come to these shores and attack American citizens? And if anyone did come here, wouldn't we have a better chance of beating them here, instead of in the Baghdad slums or the desert??
Inquiring minds want to know, because no one asks or addresses these issues in this admittedly crucial pre-election runup, least of all the President of the United States.
posted by buckarooskidoo at 7:00 PM
2 Comments:
Very good questions about an incredibly complex situation. Have you thought of going to work for the government? They could use your insight.
makes you wonder if they outed mark foley themselves to keep folks like you from asking those pointed questions.
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