"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...
So as long as we're going to kill people by the tens or hundreds of
thousands

Pat, how many of those suicide bombers were *recruited by, trained by and
paid for by* the United States?

It's easy to claim numbers- how many civilians have actually been killed by
US and Coalition forces, and how can you prove it?

DON'T blame the US for Sunni/Shiia violence. Sunday's Doonsbury has a far
better explanation.

On the whole, though, I believe you are correct. A fundamental flaw in US
policy is our insistance that we want to be everyone's friend, and act as if
that's the case. I much prefer the philosophy espoused by what was my AOL
sig- we don't have to like each other, we only have to live with each other.
I thought of this while watching Yugoslavia break down. Just because the
threat of Tito was lifted *did not* obligate anyone to fire the first shot.
In Iraq, just because Saddam was gone *did not* oblige anyone to start
killing anyone else. It's voluntary and self-inflicted and NOT the fault of
the US.

We might be better off spending another $10 billion digging a trench around
the border of Iraq and killing everything and everyone who tries to cross
the trench, either way. Seal off Iraq for a few years until they kill enough
of themselves, then salvage the rest. Cooperate with each other, find your
own solution, or die.

I also think we should have annexed a portion of Iraq near the Iraqi/Saudi
neutral zone, as well as a coridoor to the sea, and made that a permanent
base. That way, we wouldn't need to depend on any of the local nations for
military support.