Iraq Questions

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by George Will

Shortly after the [First Iraq] war, the then secretary of defense, Dick Cheney, said why arguments for "going to Baghdad'' had been "fallacious.''

"Once you've got Baghdad, it's not clear what you do with it," he told The New York Times. "It's not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that's currently there now. Is it going to be a Shia regime, a Sunni regime or a Kurdish regime? Or one that tilts toward the Baathists, or one that tilts toward the Islamic fundamentalists? How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the United States military when it's there? How long does the United States military have to stay to protect the people that sign on for that government, and what happens to it once we leave?''

Good questions, the answers to which we now know.

Entire Article

Comments

J.D. Kessler said…
Bob:

Have you read Fiasco? Very interesting analysis of the US military failure orchestrated by the DOD.
6:33 PM
Bob Cat said…
Bob Clasen replies

No I have not read. So was Cheney right in staying out of Baghdad, or was there some strategy that could answer this collection of seemingly impenetrable questions. Plus, I wonder if any of these sub groups are really interesting in being our allies in the long run.

What would have been the more intelligent strategy?
9:15 PM
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