Wednesday, November 15, 2006

The Hinge of Fate

Ralph Peters is a conservative who thinks Iraq is likely doomed. He mirrors my thoughts however and so I link to him here. I have never understood why we have allowed Saddam to live so long; why Sadr is allowed to live now and why armed militiamen are not simply shot on sight.

It has also been my view that the year under Bremmer was largely wasted. We should have shot looters on sight; put in a law giving Iraqi individuals a share of the oil revenues (like Alaska has) and informed Syria and Iran that to the extent trouble makers came across their borders hot pursuit would be unpleasant, and in Syria's case regime destroying.

That way it would be very difficult for Iraq's current rulers to take away the oil entitlement (as entitlements never go away) and each individual Iraqi would have a stake in the country. Now of course, time has gone by. There have been elections. If the current government asks us to go we have to go. Until then however, we should take up Peter's suggestions.

Extra credit to anyone who knows where the title of this post comes from (no googling).

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