>>>>>Politics is mostly ridiculous...but I must admit, this is probably the most ridiculous I've seen in some time. Sadly, many of the masses will take it at face value and due to their hatred of the U.S. lately, assume the U.S. is doing something nefarious to bring it all about...
>>>>
>>>>A certain friendship can now be seen between the governments of Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran. It looks as if there is only one thing that keeps them united. Sigh.
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>>>So true. And half the American voting public wants to stay the course.
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>>and another half prefers to cut and run.
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>IMO that is a really unfortunate political phrase. We have been in Iraq 5 1/2 years and have only made things worse. There comes a time to admit a mistake.
>
>What good do you see in staying in more than phase-out mode? Do you seriously believe we are going to bring democracy to Iraq?
Personally, I have never supported builidng democracy there, because of too high cost. However, it is done now, i.e. we won the war in military sense, long time ago, and we gave democracy to Iraqis. The only problem, in general, is that 'democracy' is not identical to 'paradise'.
Edward Pikman
Independent Consultant