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Originally Posted by primetime
Eric..besides education..(because I don't think that will work effectively enough) What would you propose?
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First thing is to get our troops out of there and stop construction on these perminant bases. Osama bin Laden for years kept saying that once the United States military came to the Middle East they would never leave. By building perminant bases there, we are proving him right, and it helps build his credibility. There is no way we can defeat Al-Queda if the general population sees Al-Queda's leader as credible.
Second would be to pump money into Iraq, not in the form of contracts for big American companies who hire cheap labor from the Far East, but in a way that not only rebuilds Iraq but gives jobs to Iraqis. There also needs to be some kind of assistance programs to help the poor and unemployed, and that too should be funded by the US. And if we were to do that, I'm sure many other countries would contribute as well. There needs to be a huge increase in the standard of living to bring things back to the way they were prior to the Gulf War.
And lastly, whatever happens politically, we need to support what the people want. If the most important issue is really about decreasing the influence of terrorism in the Middle East, then it cannot also be about oil and economics for foreign corporations in Iraq. Unfortunately those two issues run head-on and cannot both be accomplished side-by-side. What is required to accomplish one of those two goals will make the other impossible to accomplish.
So take your pick: either have political influence in Iraq and have foreign oil corporations controlling Iraqi oil, or have an effective strategy in fighting against terrorism. But both cannot be accomplished.