A drawing by an Iraqi child illustrating the evisceration of the Al Qaeda hydra by an Iraqi sword and American muscle.
A drawing by an Iraqi child illustrating the evisceration of the Al Qaeda hydra by an Iraqi sword and American muscle.
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Lovely vision, little practicality.
Yes, it's much more practical to surrender to people who want to kill us.
You could always give them hugs and kisses instead.
Mark: Yeah, those little Iraqi kids are dumb.
Ben: No, but it is much more practical to realize that winning in Iraq is not a function of "American muscle", it's a function of cooperation among the Iraqi people and "government" leaders.
MW: The expectations weren't high on my part; after all, a kid made it.. but that's not the point. If you're going to put the scribblings of kids on your website as something to be seriously considered and contemplated, no matter how well-meaning the scribblings are, you'll have to expect (and live with) the assertion that those scribblings are, as I've said, high on vision and low on practicality.
It's certainly nice that some Iraqi children have their heads filled with these lovely visions, although I don't know how surprised or amazed I am to see that. But what seems much more to the point (and relevant) is what the older generations in Iraq are doing (and not doing).
Mark: But the children are our future! We need to teach them well and let them lead the way.
Seriously though, I disagree with you. the older Iraqis can spend the next decade blowing each other up, but if their kids grow up liking/respecting/tolerating the United States then Iraq has a chance of turning out like Japan or Germany in 50 years instead of Vietnam.
MW: Oh, but it's not that simple. The actions of the older generations have a direct influence on the development of the younger generations. There are those in the younger generation that are the opposite of children like those who made the illustration at the top of this thread. Those children will grow up in the future to be the sectarian murderers so often a part of the present discourse on Iraq. There will be two sides in the future of the younger generations just as there are two sides now.
The transition of Iraq's society from one of violence and sectarian strife to one of peace and cooperation will not happen simply because of one or even two generational change.
here's an idea for peace that may not have yet been considered. Instead of selling $20bn of weapons to SA and the middle east, how about we offer to buy back $20bn of our old weapons? Buy out all their guns. They get money, we get a less well-armed middle east.
jez: Right, because no one else would sell them weapons for that $20 billion....
How about if we just drop $20 billion worth of bombs on them?
Jez: I guess weapons are kinda like cursed swords in fantasy novels: If you touch them, then this demonic force takes possession of you and causes you to kill people. But then if you sell the weapon, then the evil leaves you and you can live peacefully with your neighbors, which is man's natural state. I mean, there were no wars before the invention of modern firearms, were there?
presumably american weapons are the best, the dirty foreign weapons they might buy from elsewhere would be easily defended against.
BB: if you have a gun, are you more or less likely to shoot someone than if you don't?