What Next for Iraq?

[Bearguin]

I was watching part of Colin Powells speech this morning and there seemed to be an unclear idea of what happens next in Iraq.

There does not seem to be a clear plan for setting up a government and pulling the troops out.

This disturbed me. And in retrospect, I'm wondering if this should not have been clearly defined at the outset and presented to the world before the battles began. Not a month-by-month plan but a set of concepts and goalposts to be met once the war is over.

Imagine if President Bush had stood up In December and laid out the reasons for war etc. AND the plan for the rebuilding. Think of how the UN would have responded to that.

Anyway, just my rant for today.

So, what is next for Iraq?

[Supercharts]

Well you can bet the Mormons and Jehovia's Witnessess will try to get in there. :D

[Michael Redman]

Originally posted by Supercharts
Well you can bet the Mormons and Jehovia's Witnessess will try to get in there. :D Holy crap! You just gave me an all-too-realistic vision of US government sponsored evangelism teams set loose in Iraq, with the grinning idiot cheering them on. That's almost too possible to be funny.

[Skeptical Greg]

McDonalds, Burger King etc...:D

[Mel]

Originally posted by Gods Advocate
I was watching part of Colin Powells speech this morning and there seemed to be an unclear idea of what happens next in Iraq.

There does not seem to be a clear plan for setting up a government and pulling the troops out.

This disturbed me. And in retrospect, I'm wondering if this should not have been clearly defined at the outset and presented to the world before the battles began. Not a month-by-month plan but a set of concepts and goalposts to be met once the war is over.

Imagine if President Bush had stood up In December and laid out the reasons for war etc. AND the plan for the rebuilding. Think of how the UN would have responded to that.

Anyway, just my rant for today.

So, what is next for Iraq?

Considering the mess that's going on in Afghanistan.... do you think ANYONE would have believed any 'plans' for nation building in Iraq?

Bush is very good at knocking down the blocks, but he sure doesn't like to clean up the mess when he's done playing.

What next for Iraq? Well.... now we see this Shiite cleric trying to 'calm' the Iraqi population. Shiite, Sunni, Kurds..... Iran, Turkey, Syria..... the future doesn't look good..... not good at all.

[whitefork]

I have two great ideas for Iraq.

1. Take some land from Iraq and Turkey and form Kurdistan. Let the United States play a heavy-handed role in helping set up the government and infrastructure.
This will aggravate everyone in the Middle East and Central Asia and take some of the attention away from Israel.

2. Partition along the 33rd Parallel, with a divided Baghdad.
This is a no-lose proposition. I'm sure many of you know what a great success partitioning has been in Israel/Palestine, the Korean Peninsula, Vietnam, and (maybe not) Germany. North and South Iraq. Maybe East and West, I'm not finished with all the details.

[Mel]

Excellent idea. Considering the track record, I think we're due for a 'win' by now.

Btw..... why has the partitioning of Cyprus seem to have worked with no real violence?

[whitefork]

HOW could I forget Cyprus!? One of the triumphs of 20th century diplomacy.

[Michael Redman]

Ireland? No one seems to mind that partitioning.

[Bearguin]

Fine. No one want to take me seriously so I'm gonna make a suggestion too.

I say we trade the Iraqi's for Quebec. Move all the Quebecers to Iraq and bring all of them here.

How's that.

[Supercharts]

Originally posted by Diogenes
McDonalds, Burger King etc...:D

There actually is a McDonalds in Baghdad! Do a Google search!

[LTC8K6]

Yeah, considering the enormous number of years it's been since we went in to Afghanistan, I'm surprised it's not a lovely tourist spot already. :rolleyes:

There should be a Disney theme park there already!

[DrChinese]

Originally posted by Gods Advocate
There does not seem to be a clear plan for setting up a government and pulling the troops out.

So, what is next for Iraq?

We always knew the plan was to mess Iraq up and then pay lip service to doing anything later. Look at Afghanistan.

The question is not what's next for Iraq, it's "what's next for the US?" Who are we going after next, and what will our pretext be. Oh, we may have a short delay while GW runs for re-election, and the military budget is boosted. But bigger things are ahead. If I sound paranoid, just remember what life was like 2 years ago. Two wars in two years is a lot for anyone. And GW has already named his next two - N. Korea and Iran.

[Baggle]

Sorry to go against the grain, but does anyone else think that Iraq may be a serious nation much sooner than Afghanistan may be? Iraq is reportedly very modern, and they have HUGE supply of oil in order to actually sell for cash to buy and build things with. I'm thinking that the Iraqis are going to be very wealthy in a decade or so. Or am I wrong?

-Baggle

Originally posted by Baggle
Sorry to go against the grain, but does anyone else think that Iraq may be a serious nation much sooner than Afghanistan may be? Iraq is reportedly very modern, and they have HUGE supply of oil in order to actually sell for cash to buy and build things with. I'm thinking that the Iraqis are going to be very wealthy in a decade or so. Or am I wrong?

-Baggle

Sure, they'll have oil, as long as the US doesn't liberate it in the name of freedom!

Baggle, I think you're probably quite right.