If Saddam was in control...

[cucamelsmd15]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...4863795.column

I found this article interesting. It discusses some of the ups and downs of putting Saddam back in power in Iraq. What Id like to see is some decent discussion on this idea, since, lets face it, Republicans dont have a plan, Democrats sure as heck dont have a plan, and Bush isnt listening to anything.

Article:

THE DEBATE about Iraq has moved past the question of whether it was a mistake (everybody knows it was) to the more depressing question of whether it is possible to avert total disaster. Every self-respecting foreign policy analyst has his own plan for Iraq. The trouble is that these tracts are inevitably unconvincing, except when they argue why all the other plans would fail. It's all terribly grim.

So allow me to propose the unthinkable: Maybe, just maybe, our best option is to restore Saddam Hussein to power.

Yes, I know. Hussein is a psychotic mass murderer. Under his rule, Iraqis were shot, tortured and lived in constant fear. Bringing the dictator back would sound cruel if it weren't for the fact that all those things are also happening now, probably on a wider scale.

At the outset of the war, I had no high hopes for Iraqi democracy, but I paid no attention to the possibility that the Iraqis would end up with a worse government than the one they had. It turns out, however, that there is something more awful than totalitarianism, and that is endless chaos and civil war.

Nobody seems to foresee the possibility of restoring order to Iraq. Here is the basic dilemma: The government is run by Shiites, and the security agencies have been overrun by militias and death squads. The government is strong enough to terrorize the Sunnis into rebellion but not strong enough to crush this rebellion.

Meanwhile, we have admirably directed our efforts into training a professional and nonsectarian Iraqi police force and encouraging reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites. But we haven't succeeded. We may be strong enough to stop large-scale warfare or genocide, but we're not strong enough to stop pervasive chaos.

Hussein, however, has a proven record in that department. It may well be possible to reconstitute the Iraqi army and state bureaucracy we disbanded, and if so, that may be the only force capable of imposing order in Iraq.

Chaos and order each have a powerful self-sustaining logic. When people perceive a lack of order, they act in ways that further the disorder. If a Sunni believes that he is in danger of being killed by Shiites, he will throw his support to Sunni insurgents who he sees as the only force that can protect him. The Sunni insurgents, in turn, will scare Shiites into supporting their own anti-Sunni militias.



And it's not just Iraqis who act this way. You could find a smaller-scale version of this dynamic in an urban riot here in the United States. But when there's an expectation of social order, people will act in a civilized fashion.

Restoring the expectation of order in Iraq will take some kind of large-scale psychological shock. The Iraqi elections were expected to offer that shock, but they didn't. The return of Saddam Hussein — a man every Iraqi knows, and whom many of them fear — would do the trick.

The disadvantages of reinstalling Hussein are obvious, but consider some of the upside. He would not allow the country to be dominated by Iran, which is the United States' major regional enemy, a sponsor of terrorism and an instigator of warfare between Lebanon and Israel. Hussein was extremely difficult to deal with before the war, in large part because he apparently believed that he could defeat any U.S. invasion if it came to that. Now he knows he can't. And he'd probably be amenable because his alternative is death by hanging.

I know why restoring a brutal tyrant to power is a bad idea. Somebody explain to me why it's worse than all the others.

[eleanor]

So, prior to our invasion, SH was a brutal dictator. He maintained order by the most violent, brutal, insane, tactics. He kept the Sunni and Shia from each others throats while keeping a lid on the Kurds. In that way, he was much like Tito, who kept the insane quilt of "Yugoslavia" together through force, and bribery -- playing off Russia against the USA, getting "aid" from everyone, and paying folks off -- as well as using force, and the threat of force.

SH was running a SECULAR dictatorship. Iraq was a modern country (compared to today). Women had rights. They did not live under Islamic law.

His ONE problem is that he wasn't OUR vicious dictator. We have supported many such folks -- when WE "had " them. His removal has further destabilized the Middle East, leaving Iran as the dominant power.

Please tell me how this has made us "safer"?

What in he** were these fools thinking?

We are now in trouble in Afganistan, violence there has increased. Tell me how the diversion of resources to Iraq has helped us there?

Again, what were these folks thinking?

I guess that's what letting ideology trump reality gets you.

[one-eyed-fatman]

Were breeding a Saddam type government in our own government as we speak. Problem is most are to stupid to realize it.

[XDAndMe]

Originally Posted by one-eyed-fatman

Were breeding a Saddam type government in our own government as we speak. Problem is most are to stupid to realize it.

I gotta hear this Please elaborate on that.

[one-eyed-fatman]

Originally Posted by XDAndMe

I gotta hear this Please elaborate on that.

No thanks. To many deaf, dumb and blind people on this forum.

[NewXD40fun]

Originally Posted by XDAndMe

I gotta hear this Please elaborate on that.

OEF is the Forum misanthrope....look out.





too late


Tom

[Frenchy]

Originally Posted by one-eyed-fatman

No thanks. To many deaf, dumb and blind people on this forum.

That's a cop-out, good buddy.

[one-eyed-fatman]

Originally Posted by NewXD40fun

OEF is the Forum misanthrope....look out.





too late


Tom

I hope a dog bites you on the ass for saying that.

[one-eyed-fatman]

Originally Posted by Frenchy

That's a cop-out, good buddy.

Yeah I hear ya. OK Ill give you a small example. Politics's in school. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/4392235.html

[XDAndMe]

Hopefully a deaf, dumb and blind dog comes along, Tom.

You guys made me laugh.