corplinx said:
Your homework assignment tonight is to play devil's advocate for Mr. Bush and figure out why some (not all) of the "he had no plan" "he didnt plan enough for after the war" talk is just partisan spin.
Your clues:
1. How can you realisticly plan for the complete overhaul of a country that had 40 percent unemployment and needed a complete infrastructure overhaul.
Firstly, don't fire people. Instead of disbanding the police and security forces, hire them to continue doing their jobs. Also, make policing the main job. Get real policemen to do this, not soldiers. Endeavor, as much as possible, to keep businesses open and looting down. This may mean massive numbers of troops at first, but the reward will be a business community that is still functional and less damage to the infrastructure by looters and terrorists.
Also, support the businesses. Just like we give small businesses loans in the US, keep at least
some money flowing in the economy. This is much more likely to win approval from the locals than house-to-house searches. Iraq is a very westernized country and the people
want to be able to work and get paid for it.
Give troops and other workers substantial bonuses for learning Arabic. Make basic Arabic mandatory. Nothing wins trust (and prevents secrecy) like having the occupying forces able to communicate with the locals.
Make it a priority to first restore the parts of the infrastructure that were damaged by our bombing, with the exception of Saddam's palaces, which should be fenced off and forbidden to all except for searching for info/weapons. If the Iraqis see the occupation forces staying in Saddam's palaces, they may assume that this is just a new dictator.
Just a few offhand suggestions. Some may not be workable.
corplinx said:
2. How often does the US rebuild a country like this, it seems the only way to have a certain plan is if you had expertise in such a chaotic rebuildings. In other words, was it wise for the naysayers to think that the rebuilding of a third world country would be overnight? What does this say about their intelligence or blinders.
No, it is foolish to think it was going to happen overnight. Most of us "naysayers" said this from the very beginning. What is so mind-boggeling is that Bush either
thought it would happen very quickly (and all to the pre-war rhetoric seems to suggest this), or he knew it would be much more difficult than he had suggested, and deliberately did not tell us.
The reason Bush is in such hot water now, is because he pumped up the conservatives with talk of defeating the enemy, but did not tell those same conservatives how much it would cost. A lot of them have come to a rude awakening, and are only now looking at the long-term financial implications of this ill-conceived war. Conservatives are not noted for their willingness to give the government their money.
That's why I didn't reply to him.
