69 million page views

Dodge City

Reader comment on item: Iraq: "Could a New Strongman Help?"

Submitted by Joe (United States), Nov 16, 2006 at 14:44

Iraq reminds me of American westerns: Scared town folk look to strong sheriff to restore order only to find they must kill him because he's gone too far. They find a proxy to do the dirty work, usually a moral man with a criminal past...It's a struggle between the rule of law and the practicalites involved in enforcing the rule of law on groups that don't abide within the law of the larger group.

The trouble today is the sheriff is afraid of the newspaper which is always printing alarmist stories of the sheriff's own outlaw behavior on the slimist of evidence and in fact mostly gened up charges. The townies become more afraid of the sheriff before he can take on the outlaws. They grow because their strategy is profitable and the sheriff takes on the blame. He cant stop them. But he doesn't have the power and sanctions he needs from the townie to get the job done. And so you have a disfunctional society. The lawful group's opinion makers are mostly at fault. They don't see thier part. They aren't responsible.

Submitting....

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".

Submit a comment on this item

<< Previous Comment      Next Comment >>

Reader comments (17) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
creeping vines [1160 words]cassanoJan 6, 2007 23:2271923
Voltaire On Iraq [27 words]G.GlazerNov 26, 2006 23:4067439
No contradiction [37 words]OctavioNov 27, 2006 14:2067439
Get out of Iraq ASAP [19 words]OctavioNov 25, 2006 16:3167330
Strongman [180 words]Mitzi AlvinNov 24, 2006 15:0267195
Allawi?!! Been there done that. [116 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Francis BrookeNov 24, 2006 11:3367174
"Could a New Strongman Help?" [198 words]Johanna StephensNov 24, 2006 10:3967163
Perfection [83 words]Julian ZedNov 24, 2006 10:1967160
Why didn't Iraqis vote for Allawi? [34 words]Roger McKinneyNov 22, 2006 11:4766970
It's all about the Middle East [77 words]Mike GNov 18, 2006 08:0466491
Democracy and Iraq [388 words]VinodguptNov 16, 2006 14:5066339
Dodge City [184 words]JoeNov 16, 2006 14:4466337
Democracy? That is too optimistic [365 words]mike bitNov 15, 2006 21:5366267
Rethinking Iraq strategy [310 words]DennisNov 13, 2006 13:3766006
Power Share Will Resolve Conflict In Iraq [78 words]skmillerNov 13, 2006 10:5765990
How about a little responsibility... ? [29 words]MikeNov 13, 2006 03:3865972
iraq [336 words]robert fusfeldNov 12, 2006 11:1265918

Follow Daniel Pipes

Facebook   Twitter   RSS   Join Mailing List

All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2024 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes

Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes

(The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998.

For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.)