Say Anything Blog

I wonder what affect the polarization of the democratic landscape towards the Islamists in the ME will have on our effort to reinvigorate the good old ‘war’ between the Sunnis and the Shias? Wow. I’m so excited to see this all play out in the near future. $50 bucks on the Sunnis. Who’s calculating the odds on this one? In the ME as a whole: Sunnis=5:3 Shia=1:4… In Iraq if the conflict can be contained and we don’t involve Iran and Syria too much: Sunnis=1:5 Shia=3:2… Who wants in?

In an exclusive interview conducted by Sparkie Arbuckle yesterday after work at Starbucks, Hamas leaders said, “Vote jihadis at home and for Bush in the US ... and I love these maple-frosted scones.”.

Well that is quite a change from less than a month ago. Back then, Hamas leaders were rooting for the Democrats to win.

But that was reality, not some fantasy world that you have created and sickeningly displayed here.

Lik
I didn’t make up the election results or the rationalization of that outcome. I also didn’t make up the fact that we are creating a ‘Sunni alliance’ to ‘offset’ the ‘growing influence’ of Tehran in the ME. Saddam was a more effective check/buffer of Iran than we are.

I didn’t make up the election results or the rationalization of that outcome.

No, you just make up a fantasy world were the Western world’s enemies support Bush, when in fact they’re quite vocal in supporting Democrats and the Democrat position of run and hide. You have a snarky made up interview, while I give actual quotes from real Hamas leaders.

Funny that I had to spell that one out.

I also didn’t make up the fact that we are creating a ‘Sunni alliance’ to ‘offset’ the ‘growing influence’ of Tehran in the ME. Saddam was a more effective check/buffer of Iran than we are.

A concern of mine as well, although I don’t buy into your disposition on the matter.

The imagined situation of Saddam “offsetting” Iranian ambitions is, shall we say, both unsustaining and naive. The same can be said about Iran “offsetting” Saddam’s Iraq. After all, it wasn’t Iran who bombed Saddam’s nuclear facility during the Iran-Iraq War, it was Israel. Add in the invasion of Kuwait and your claims of an “effective check/buffer” look even more silly.

Wow, Sparkie.  That’s something.  You comment on your own posts now.

Well, at least you don’t use sock puppets.

In related news, Sparkie admits to his repugnance of allowing individuals to choose their own future for themselves, favoring blood-thirsty dictators instead.

Likwidshoe, you make great points as usual.

To describe Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 2003 as an effective check/buffer to Iran is quite honestly just fucking stupid.

Sparkie admits to his repugnance of allowing individuals to choose their own future for themselves, favoring blood-thirsty dictators instead.

Carrick
Why don’t you explain how the democracy we have set up, which has simply put the Shias & the Kurds in the position the Sunnis used to be in during Saddam’s Iraq, is any different at all (besides the fact that we now back the oppressors and fight on their side in the current Iraqi civil war). The Kurds have a veto but the Sunnis do not. That is very telling. Yous ‘choosing their own future’ meme is BS. The Sunnis are now in a position where they must take up arms to do that - maybe we will never truly know if democracy would work because we won’t put in one that would function in a democratic manner.
Also one can’t help but notice the mandate that people like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian hardliners, the Islamists in Bahrain, and the other militants in the ME have enjoyed since we set out to decrease their appeal.

Sparkie: Just a factual reminder; the Shia are not the “former oppressors”; that would be the Sunnis.  In a historical perspective, the Sunnis are damn lucky to have any voice in this govt at all, and the fact that they do, even though they boycotted the elections initially, is a tribute to the fairness of the govt they have now, no matter how much you try to tear it down.  The previous govt totally oppressed, tortured and murdered the Shia and the Kurds.

Hope and change, in a free world, are the private possessions of motivated individuals.

Sparkie, nice job of shifting the argument after you were trounced on your ignorant comment, “Saddam was a more effective check/buffer of Iran than we are.”

Actually, the problem in Iraq from the Sunni’s perspective is not that they are under represented, but rather than they are not over represented enough.  For example, they are demanding a share of oil revenues from other provinces (try getting that one passed in the United States, greater than equal representation in parliament (a concession they have already gotten), and so forth.

As to “The Kurds have a veto but the Sunnis do not.” WTF are you talking about?  Here is the text. Illuminate us with your brilliance.  I believe the Kurd Veto you were thinking of a clause in the Transitional Administrative Law, something that is not codified in the current constitutional law of Iraq.s

But it’s a laughable claim in any case, that Saddam’s bloody Sunni-dominated regime is in any measure comparable to the current pluralistic central government.

I think all of you are ignoring the point of the post: Our presence and attempt to influence the ME is having a polarizing effect and working to the democratic advantage of people we would prefer not to see in power there.

It’s not our country.  The point you’re missing is we don’t have the right to tell the people of any country whom they can vote for and whom they can’t.

What we’ve found by experience that installing or supporting dictators, or even allowing them to exist, in the long run is not in our interest.  Nondemocratic governments are generally incompetent at running the affairs of their state.  This is the real reason that the Soviet Union fell, and why we are having so much problem with sectarian strife in Iraq.

The point is, we maybe able to trust a puppet dictator to make favorable decisions towards the US, but their country will progressively get more and more fucked up.  Totalitarian states are time bombs, and when they go off, it can be really messy.

In the long run, a vibrant society and an economic interdependence is much more in our interests than some inept puppet dictator installed by some farcical aquatic ceremony.