Another Fundamentalist Government In Iraq?
The Washington Post reports that the U.S. is unprepared to stop the rise of an anti-American, Islamic fundamentalist government in Iraq.
Bush adminstration officials now say they underestimated the strength of the Shiites, who make up 60% of the Iraqi population. The U.S. goal of a "crescent of democracies" among Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, the Israeli-occupied territories and Saudi Arabia is even more doubtful now. The U.S. is hoping that differences between the Persian Shiites and the Iraqi Shiites will keep fundamentalism in check.Some U.S. intelligence analysts and Iraq experts said they warned the Bush administration before the war about vanquishing Hussein's government without having anything to replace it. But officials said the concerns were either not heard or fell too low on the priority list of postwar planning. ...."This is a 25-year project," one three-star general officer said. "Everyone agreed it was a huge risk, and the outcome was not at all clear."A 25 year project? How many of those supporting the war knew we might be in this for 25 years? This war is beginning to sound less and less like a victory and more and more like a foolish, expensive gambit.
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