It's not too late to salvage Iraq.

[SoCalDem]

All that needs to happen is to do what we should have done from the get go.

They have a vibrant press going on over there right now, and people are starving for information after a 30 year lockdown.

Some well-placed ads stating that from (select any date) on, the US will be PAYING IRAQI citizens 3 times what they were paid during the Saddam era, and providing them with the tools and material to rebuild their OWN country.

That part of the world was a cizilization when our ancestors were eating dirt and twigs.. They INVENTED algebra and poetry.

We had our dark age..and emerged.. They have been having a "dark age" too, but mostly due to outsider interference..(Crusades ring a bell?)


BUT.. they are an intelligent, resourceful people, and given HELP instead of interference, they could rebound....and the bonus? WE would be seem as facilitators and friends..not meddlers and enemies.


Every Iraqi man from 15-60 would gladly pick up a shovel or a pencil, if he were well paid and could support his own family.

We always try to do things "on the cheap", and it shows. The sad thing is that it is costing US BILLIONS, and getting lots of people killed in the process.

We should have announced that .."Saddam is GONE..YOU have your country back..and every Iraqi who wants a well paid job to rebuild, will HAVE one...We will HELP you, but it's YOUR country, once again"..

Why we did not do that?? Heres' why.. *²'s pals would have NOT been chosen to receive the largesse, and yes, FRANCE might have been chosen by the Iraqis to help in the reconstruction. *²'s "base" would have been furious, since we all know how they "love" welfare.

All the things that Iraq lacked during Saddam's regime are still lacking, and they have the added features of car-bombs and terrorism, to boot. Is it any wonder why things are going straight into the toilet?

Our soldiers cannot recognize their enemy, because he/she is potentially EVERYONE.

It's time for us to go.

[knowbody0]

1. this should have been the plan in the beginning

there is no logic in this administration.

[SoCalDem]

5. There was logic.. evil, twisted logic

1. finsih Poppy's war
2. steal the treasury of the US
3. give it to contributors to *²'s campaigns
4. disguise the rising unemployment figures
5. divert public attention
6. scare people into alegiance
7. re-arm military with "new toys"
8. secure oil for the "oil-buddies"
9. add one more "divide" ..pro-war/anti-war
10.make people too afraid to elect someone else in 04

[knowbody0]

2. this should have been the plan in the beginning

there is no logic in this administration.

[LightningFlash]

3. Good point....

The enemy is now limitless and its resolve is endless because of a war that was already illegal to begin with. When something is really against the law, its not going to get better: It will simply get WORSE.

And finally they need to watch what the hell we've been doing, we installed Israel friendly dictators and took over their economy. Our ACTIONS say different from our words, and they are so damn pissed off now, the whole place could blow. So getting the hell out is a priority, and leaving enough coalition forces in place to help secure the borders and get people jobs.

[lvx35]

4. welfare

*²'s "base" would have been furious, since we all know how they "love" welfare.

I wonder what they think spending 500,000,000,000 dollars on "liberating" people is called, if not welfare! I mean isn't that why we're there???? Its not national defense.

[SoCalDem]

6. True..but if it's disguised as WAR, they will accept it

if it were presented as AID, they would have been livid.

[lvx35]

11. That's what blows my mind

Bush gets up there and basically argues that its for the "well being" of the Iraqi people (since the WMD and Al Queda connections have failed) and conservatives cheer, yet if the same money were applied to the well being of America's poor and oppressed, they would be up in arms!!! Crazy!

[SoCalDem]

12. We are the richest country on earth, and yet we are also the stingiest

when it comes to the poor..our own poor.. We are inherently ashamed of them, and just want them to "go away". It rarely occurs to our leaders that some people will always need help..Better to just accept that fact and HELP them, than to spend excessive time and money trying to thwart every plan to lift them up..

The amount of money being spent on the administration of aid to the poor, added to what they GET, might actually make them NOT poor anymore:)

[lvx35]

13. agreed.

I think we could eradicate poverty in this country. I think we could have everybody working a meaningful job. But then that would get rid of unemployement, the huge pool of hungry people that minimum wage businesses need to draw upon to work their intolerable tasks for nothing.

[SoCalDem]

14. Sadly, there's not much money to be made in poverty eradication

But there's BIG bucks to be made in adminsitration of poverty aid..Look at the tsunami scams that are surfacing..

[LightningFlash]

8. Those liberals are spending all that money.....

.....Those liberal republicans, yet again! :rofl: :rofl: :thumbsdown:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. We ran over the patient and now we're whacking him with a tire iron.

Allegedly, to "stabilize" him.

Your plan is a great one, but far too reasonable and humane for the politicians.

[Frederik]

9. Good post

I would have been a little harsher though: "All the things that Iraq lacked during Saddam's regime are still lacking", well, most things are lacking much more now than they did before the invasion. They had electricity and water 24 hours a day or nearly, better health care than they have now, more food, jobs etc.

Instead of fixing Iraq's cement factories, which had been shocked & awed, the CPA bought American cement at a much higher price than the Iraqi cement would have cost them. And so on. You're absolutely right, the last thing the Iraqis need is Americans taking their jobs from them.

Kerry, in his speech yesterday, floated the idea that Iraq's neighboring countries should be asked to get more involved in Iraq. I think that's a really good idea, in fact I think Bush and Condi ought to get on their knees immediately and start begging the Egyptians and the Jordanians, Algeria, Morrocco, Saudi Arabia, hell, even Libya and Syria, to consider putting together an Arab peacekeeping force for the Arab parts of Iraq. Possibly under the flag of the Arab League, it could be the Arab League's golden moment (would be their first I think). They know the language, the culture, and the religion; and they wouldn't be seen as imperialists.

Jordan has reportedly been participating in the negotiations between the US and the Sunni insurgents, which are said to be held in Amman. That's a small step in the right direction, but it should be the Iraqi government, NOT the US, doing the negotiating. The US or Britain shouldn't have anything to do with it.

Time to swallow some pride and start looking at workable solutions for a change.

[SoCalDem]

10. Our utter lack of Arabic-speakers is our biggest problem

To invade a country and not be able to communicate with the "friendlies" is the ultimate in stupidity..

But then look at the crew in charge:(