Yuval Brandstetter's suggestion is right on the dot

Submitted by PPS (United States), Apr 3, 2010 at 15:09

Dear Dr Pipes, Today (4th april, 2010) 24 villagers were killed in Iraq in an execution style murder. It is not possible to teach democratic methods in a matter of two, three or, even, ten years to people who don't want democracy. So, respondent Yuval Brandstetter's suggestion that we should declare victory and leave Iraq is absolutely correct. Such a declaration of victory will not be a lie. A military victory is never meant to change the minds. It only changes the regime or brings it to submission. Both these goals --for good resons or bad-- have been achieved in the case of Iraq's Saddam Hussain.

Our goal should be save our money and resources and let Iraq follow its destiny. If it becomes a matured democracy good for everyone. If it becomes a Islamic shaikhdom like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, good for us as well (we will save our money). If it becomes a dictatorship of some kind, we should do our best to protect our interests. The money that we are spending in rebuilding Iraq can be better spend in stablizing the US and western-european economieswith whose success and progress our future is tied. The worst case possibilities are that Iraq either develops into a sudan style genocidal regime or an Iran style regime with nuclear ambitions. In the former case, we should do everything that we can to provide humanitarian and (limited) military aid (we should be doing the same for Sudan in the first place!).

Nuclear ambitions of different countries is something that we will have to learn to live with. As the years pass, all technologies becom more and more available and cheap. The same is true with nuclear weapon technology. How to contain the spread of nuclear weapon across nations is a problem unrelated to what is happening in Iraq and our staying in Iraq of leaving it irrelevant.

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