I agree that the attack on Iraq was a misguided affair. However, it does illustrate how concerned the West is with anybody, like Saddam Hussein, who might potentially destablize the fragile pro-West governments of the region and interfer with the flow of "black gold" to the West. Supposedly, during Saddam's regime something like 60 thousands Iraqi's per year were being murdered and now that has stopped although, sadly, insurgent and sectarian violence is still claiming many lives.Since 9/11, why did Bush attack Iraq?, I thought Bin laden was the person who leaded the attack, yet they just went on and decided to attack Iraq instead, where Bin laden wasn't even residing. He was busy burying himself within the Afghanistan caves. Personally I would of concentrated my efforts within the man in question sorted this out and then moved on to something else.
I think the West is now concerned with the continuing "background" threat to the region posed by various terrorist groups and, primarily, with the ongoing attempts by Iran to "go nuclear". Having Western military forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq places Iran in the perfect position for a "pincher" type attack, whether it be by air or land and that strategic advantage, most likely, will keep Western forces in those two countries for many years to come. Forget all of that baloney being circulated about how US troops will be completely out of Iraq in another 12 to 18 months. If they are, then it will only be because they have been re-deployed eastward into Iran!
Another interesting story surfaced today.
Apparently, the West has purchased something like 500,000 weapons of various types to supply the Iraqi army and police with and the US taxpayers paid for about 3/4 of those weapons.
Now, the latest inventory shows that only about 12,000 of the weapons can be accounted for! Where are the rest of them? Nobody seems to know, but our troops are starting to capture and kill insurgents who were carrying US made weapons and used them to kill our troops with! So, because of the infiltration of the Iraqi government with members with loyalties to the insurgents, terrorists, etc., we can never know which side our tax dollars will be used to strengthen!
Some positive news from the Pacific Rim.
Kim Jong Il has agree to return to the 6 Party Talks and begin negotiations over his development of nuclear weapons. Apparently, the sanctions and a lot of pressure from China has gotten him back to the negotiating table.
Will that work? No, I doubt it...we've been this route before. It's basically delaying tactics designed to frustrate the West and get them to give the Kim regime whatever it wants so that the West can "save face" and not look completely impotent in affecting the politics of that region.
At a minimum, this latest diplomatic "breakthrough" gives the Bush administration something to brag about as the Republican Party heads into an election in another week that could see the worst loss of power in the history of the party! Will it help? Probably not, the average citizen of the US still feels betrayed by the US' involvement in Iraq and the death toll which will soon equal that of 9/11...
ken
