Posted by Dinah on November 11, 2006, at 8:56:23
In reply to Re: The Ongoing Effects of War ***Trigger*** » Dinah, posted by zeugma on November 10, 2006, at 21:22:27
I would hope that he means that performing better would include performing without sectarian bias. In fact, somewhere I remember reading that one of the things they're working on... Oh drat. I can't recall, but it was something along those lines.
It would seem to me that there are two problems that need to be addressed with regard to the Iraqi army. One is that they come from a long tradition of those in power having rather absolute power and a lot of discretion on what is considered acceptable behavior. And the second is that in a sectarian conflict, it's hard for people to be soldiers first and Sunni/Shiite/Kurd or whatever second.
I'm hoping that by helping them be more effective, they're talking about those things as much or more than learning how to subdue opposition more effectively.
But I honestly don't know.
It's that moral uncertainty that keeps me from thinking that there are good guys or bad guys so much as people who just don't know what the right answer is. Or perhaps people who think they do. :/ I think I'm comforted by uncertainty, but then there's that whole Reagan dynamic which doesn't fall into that general rule.
And of course the involvement of non-Iraqis (or non-Afghans) complicates pullout in either place.
I wish we could concentrate more troops along the border in Afghanistan, and keep an eye on warlords. It seems like we made an implicit promise to the people of that battleworn country, and we ought to keep it. My brother was stationed there before things heated up again, and the impression that I've gotten from him is that things were going ok. The people weren't overly resentful of the military, and they were getting their lives back in order.
We do have some sort of duty when we invade a country. Sometimes it's difficult to know how best to carry it out. Sometimes it's a bit easier. It seems in this case that we're ignoring the part that's a bit easier because the harder part is shouting louder.
I hope that there can be a bipartisan, multinational effort to figure that out.
poster:Dinah
thread:702096
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20061009/msgs/702517.html