Iraq example just proves one thing

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Jun 19, 2014 at 02:14

Dear Dr Pipes,

The Iraq example proves only one thing. It is that the West cannot force democracy on people who do not want democracy. The amount of sweat, blood and money that we have spent on attempting to win the Iraq and Afghanistan war could have been spent on propaganda against the Islamists. West's only goal should be to contain the Islamist's aggression and severe cases of genocide and murder by Islamists (as in Northern Nigeria). The war against Islamists is not a war that can be won with arms (because as, an Israeli prime minister said many years ago, Islamist fighters have no deterrence. If you can do one bad thing they can do three and there are no rules with which they play (they will not only kill in Mumbai and New York, but also they will kill in Karachi and Baghdad).

Emancipation will come for the Islamic world only when lots of mothers and fathers in those countries will see that too many of their children have died for no good reason and it is immaterial whether they went to heaven or hell. Our policy toward Islamic nations should just be containment and strict and essential business.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".