Fueling the Iraqi opposition

Vic sent me a column by Thomas Sowell which was intended to dismiss the importance of what he considered trivialities like Congressman Foley’s sexcapades. Iraq on the other hand was a real issue and Sowell had this to say about it:

“There has never been any reason to doubt that American troops will be removed from Iraq. They were removed after the first Gulf War. Before that, they were removed from Grenada and from other Western Hemisphere countries throughout the 20th century. Millions of American troops were removed from Europe after World War II.”

I sent Vic this reply:

Of course I was not privy to White House discussions but a couple years ago as the justifications for invading Iraq were trotted out I read that because our more or less permanent troops in Saudi Arabia had become a cause for Osama bin Ladin it would be nice to move them to Iraq where presumably bin Ladin and company would no longer have a grievance for our being in his religion’s Holy Land. From what I’ve seen since of the Bush Admin I suspect that was exactly what they hoped to do.”

In my next email Mel had sent me a link to a Time Select column by Nicholas Kristof who wrote:

“Renouncing bases should be a no-brainer, and it would be the simplest way to save American lives. Seventy-seven percent of Iraqis say the U.S. plans permanent bases in Iraq. (They’re right, although we hem and haw about it.) And as the poll discovered, “the belief that the United States plans to have permanent bases in Iraq is highly correlated with support for attacks on U.S.-led forces.”

Iraqis who don’t think the U.S. wants bases are half as likely to favor attacks on Americans as those who do think the U.S. wants bases. And so if President Bush stands up and unequivocally renounces bases, that will reduce popular support for attacks – and save American lives.”

Kristoff also pointed to the recent poll of Iraqis which reported that 61% of Iraqis are glad when Americans are attacked. Guess the hearts and mind campaign hasn’t panned out. Thank goodness for the Green Zone.

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