perfidy

Here are a few thoughts on the Bucketman's most recent post. A horrific regime is on the ropes, not extinguished. The destruction of that regime is certainly in the offing, but the war is long from over. The issue is, what will follow that regime? Given Johno's attention to the Afghanistan situation, the United States should take care that they do not forget about or abandon or Iraq as it did with Afghanistan. It remains to be seen whether the new Iraqi government is better or worse.

Casualties, in terms of numbers, have been extremely light compared to other armed conflicts. But this is a little too intellectual for me. Iraqi civilians have died, such as the three people who died when American troops opened fire on their car. I don't know what happened to the little girl. These are two incidents, not high numbers of civilian casualties, but it doesn't matter so much to me. People have died. Buckethead has argued that occasionally good people must be blown up to serve a greater good. The removal of Hussein will only serve a greater good if it does not result in leadership that's even worse. It's a wait and see. But nevertheless, if I was the father of the little girl who was shot by Marines, I wouldn't give a damn about the greater good. Civilian deaths have not been many, but they have been there. People aren't statisitics, they're people. That's stating the obvious, but sometimes it goes unrecognized.

You haven't gone off the deep end in thinking that eliminating regimes would be good for the United States in general, provided those regimes are followed by a government that isn't hostile to the United States. A democratic government in those countries could just as easily be hostile to the U.S. as the current regimes. Just look at France and Germany. A puppet state is unlikely, given the fact that so many countries would scream bloody murder if the administration tried to pull that one. You haven't gone off the deep end in thinking that elimination of regimes would be good for the people who live there. But it depends on what follows. It could be good for them, it could be just as bad, it could be worse. We just have to wait and see. The U.S. looks like it's already dropped the ball in Afghanistan. Maybe they'll pay more attention to what happens in post-war Iraq. Like everything else, it remains to be seen.