Newseek: Pentagon Considers "Salvador Option" in Iraq

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
I think Cultural Revolution was a mistake, and so was the Great Leap Forward.

[notyoueither]

Mistake(s)? That's a gentle way to put it.

[notyoueither]

How big of mistakes? Should the regime(s) be toppled?

[notyoueither]

Should their heirs be free to run maneuvers in Tiananmen?

[mindseye]

Considering ... death squads?????

Originally posted by Ted Striker

I am really disgusted and ashamed. Every thing this great nation is SUPPOSED to stand for, we are turning our backs on.

I am also profoundly disgusted and, yes, ashamed. Add alarmed and horrified over what is happening to my homeland, now so far away.

Whenever a Chinese person asks me about Americans torturing prisoners, I just want to dig a hole and crawl in.

This can't be the same nation I left just four years ago.

The other day the dam which had held since the election finally broke, and I cried over my keyboard, cried for my USA.

One of my best friends back home just wrote me "You are lucky to be living abroad right now, it will save you the trouble of fleeing."

[Arrian]

NYE,

The argument you made to me is a justification for every two-bit thug who has ever tyrannized a nation. I take it, then, that you're ok with removing Saddam (who was once "our SOB") and replacing him with a new "our SOB?" Because this is the road we're on.

There were two justifications for the Iraq war to sell it to the American people:

1) WMD/National Security. This was spiced up by alluding to cooperation between Saddam & Al Quaida. This has been decisively disproved on both fronts. No WMD. No AQ link... until after the invasion, anyway.

2) "Freedom" - toppling a nasty dictator and replacing him with at least a semi-functional democracy.

And now we learn that our leadership is seriously considering training death squads and the like to put down the insurgency. Yep, clearly that will spread freedom and democracy.

"They make a desolation, and call it peace." The Romans were big on collective punishment.

-Arrian

[Theben]

I guess the question before DanS and NYE (now that he and Ted have quit blathering) is, in their opinion, is it okay to have an SOB in charge as long as he's our SOB?

A simple yes or no will suffice for starters. Then you can clarify.

[DanS]

I would prefer to have the minority persecuted than the majority persecuted. In fact, I would prefer that nobody is persecuted. However, I wonder whether that is feasible in the face of the minority fighting for much more than its fair share of power.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Giancarlo
Absolutely. We must take this option. This is the best thing ever thought up, and I'm pleased the Pentagon is considering it.

Sometimes you really strain credulity.

[Kuciwalker]

nm

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Naw, changing the road signs to direct you all to Churchill and letting the polar bears have you would most likely work.

Wouldn't work, they have the little GPS map thingies now

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by notyoueither
The only things of consequence that you would have burned were a whore house and a powder house, both made of wood.

In your case, we are what makes the White House white.

Ah, no, THAT is certainly England's accomplishment.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Spiffor

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
I think Cultural Revolution was a mistake, and so was the Great Leap Forward.

Clearly, it is possible that some local officials take it upon themselves to do such a thing, but this is not the overall policy.

[Theben]

So how seriously is the administration considering this, anyway? "Intensively debating" and "one proposal" doesn't sound like much to me. This whole thread could have been for nothing.

Then again, it shows what both sides have come to expect as normal from Bush & co.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Theben
I guess the question before DanS and NYE (now that he and Ted have quit blathering) is, in their opinion, is it okay to have an SOB in charge as long as he's our SOB?

A simple yes or no will suffice for starters. Then you can clarify.

I don't think it matters whose SOB it is. Large parts of Iraq are FUBAR. Whoever wins that election is going to have to head a government that will be faced with impossible choices.

I don't think it would be a good idea for the Americans to instigate 'death squads', but on the other hand I'm not going to be quick to condemn Iraqi authorities for getting rough if it is their choice. There's not gonig to be any nice way to reassert order, IMO, and it's gonna get worse before it gets better.