[Fwd: Iraq Dispatches: Inside Abu Hanifa mosque during attack]

[James E. Henderson]

Tracy R Reed wrote:

>On Sat, Dec 04, 2004 at 11:18:25AM -0800, Neil Schneider spake thusly:
>  
>
>>Try putting yourself in their shoes for a while. The most powerful
>>government in the world has invaded your country, killed your
>>neighbors, friends and relatives. Would you support that super power
>>or would you resist? I'm not talking about an intelectual excercise
>>here. I'm talking about a very gut-level emotional reaction. Would you
>>welcome the invaders or would you resist the occupation?
>>    
>>
>
>Depends. Am I a logically thinking person or am I religious nut?
>
>Given that Saddam killed and tortured my neighbors, friends, and relatives
>and kept the country an economic disaster for over 20 years I think I
>would be happy to see him go. As for the new government being setup, it
>seems to have done pretty well for those heathens over in that super
>power. They have relative peace and prosperity. I wouldn't mind some of
>that myself. I think what I would do is welcome the super power, let them
>set up a constitution and hold elections, and I'll vote for who I think is
>best for the job. Then once we have some measure of peace and stability
>and a legal instructure in place and people stop dying we'll start working
>on changing the constitution to meet our governmental and cultural needs
>which in the end will form a government compatible with our beliefs.
>
>History suggests that despotism and dictatorship is not really compatible
>with anyones cultural beliefs. I think it is true that we want a
>government we can deal with economically and militarily but I am sure we
>really aren't interested in 99% of the details of the day to day lives in
>the Iraqi's as that is just a liability. Of the governments we have set up
>in the past, none of the remained puppet governments for all that long.
>  
>
The Roman Republic (res publica, the thing of the people) lasted about 
1,200 years; the Roman Empire that followed it lasted about 1,500 years. 
Our country has been around for about 215 years. Iraq under Saddam was 
about the same as Mesopotamia under Gilgamesh 8,000 years ago. They seem 
to prefer a strong leader.

>Where Iraq is going can't really be any worse than where it has been.
>
>  
>
And probably not much better.



James