- Sep 19, 2011
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Strange isn't IT???
Friedman says the model for the Middle East problems with Syria,Iran??? What GWB did in Iraq!!!!
What to do? I continue to believe that the best way to understand the real options and they are grim is by studying Iraq, which, like Syria, is made up largely of Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and Kurds. Why didnt Iraq explode outward like Syria after Saddam was removed? The answer: America.
For better and for worse, the United States in Iraq performed the geopolitical equivalent of falling on a grenade that we triggered ourselves. That is, we pulled the pin; we pulled out Saddam; we set off a huge explosion in the form of a Shiite-Sunni contest for power. Thousands of Iraqis were killed along with more than 4,700 American troops,
but the presence of those U.S. troops in and along Iraqs borders prevented the violence from spreading. Our invasion both triggered the civil war in Iraq and contained it at the same time.
After that Sunni-Shiite civil war burned itself out, we brokered a fragile, imperfect power-sharing deal between Iraqi Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.
Then we got out. It is not at all clear that their deal will survive our departure.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/opinion/friedman-obamas-nightmare.html?hp&_r=0
Friedman says the model for the Middle East problems with Syria,Iran??? What GWB did in Iraq!!!!
What to do? I continue to believe that the best way to understand the real options and they are grim is by studying Iraq, which, like Syria, is made up largely of Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and Kurds. Why didnt Iraq explode outward like Syria after Saddam was removed? The answer: America.
For better and for worse, the United States in Iraq performed the geopolitical equivalent of falling on a grenade that we triggered ourselves. That is, we pulled the pin; we pulled out Saddam; we set off a huge explosion in the form of a Shiite-Sunni contest for power. Thousands of Iraqis were killed along with more than 4,700 American troops,
but the presence of those U.S. troops in and along Iraqs borders prevented the violence from spreading. Our invasion both triggered the civil war in Iraq and contained it at the same time.
After that Sunni-Shiite civil war burned itself out, we brokered a fragile, imperfect power-sharing deal between Iraqi Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.
Then we got out. It is not at all clear that their deal will survive our departure.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/opinion/friedman-obamas-nightmare.html?hp&_r=0
