From an outside view, the rebuilding of Iraq does neither seem well planned nor really working sufficiantly.
"President Bush said yesterday that he is working to persuade more nations to help in Iraq, where Saddam Hussein loyalists are killing coalition forces in a war that persists alongside rebuilding efforts. (AP)"
The Nashville City Paper writes in today's editorial:
I wonder, if the couple of comments to this article (up to now) are the real opinion of US-Americans.
Alabama Congressman Bud Cramer, member of the Intelligence Committee, did a "whirl-wind tour of Baghdad":
Quote:
"It's been an unbelievable opportunity for me, for this district to be able to see just how difficult it is to pick up the pieces. Our troops are having to maintain themselves under very difficult circumstances."
from:
Alabama's Role in Rebuilding Iraq
However, since weeks I wonder, why no-one looks back in history.
It really isn't the first time, a country was invaded and a new structure was created there.
And indeed, it even isn't the first time, a US government is doing such.
I grew up (okay, in the [former] British Zone) in a town with a Jewish mayor and an ex-Nazi town clerk, both installed 1945 by the Americans and later (1946) established by local elections.
And the police troops didn't change at all.
I know, today is nearly 60 years later and Germany isn't Iraq.
But I do believe, it's worth thinking about that situation years back in Europe and how it was handled then.
It might save lifes.
Alexander Casella, in the Asia Times, even goes further, looking at how the Nazis were doing in occupied countries:
Quote:...
There is little doubt that had the US seriously planned for a post-Saddam administration, it would not have had to change practically its whole transitional administrative team only one month after the fall of Baghdad. While this lack of advance planning as regards a strategic exercise, of which the military stage was only the first phase, is downright incomprehensible, it is not the first time in history that immediate concerns overshadowed the need for a long-term occupation strategy.
Though the post-World War II era is hardly one of peace, it is a rare occurrence in which one nation invaded another with the publicly stated purpose of imposing its authority on it, changing its regime and transforming it into a client state.
Even at the height of the Cold War, outright invasion of a foreign state without the pretext of supporting a real or hypothetical local force was not the norm. Thus while the Soviet Union did subjugate Eastern Europe, it did so by imposing, under its umbrella, the rule of local communist parties. Likewise, its invasion of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 essentially sought to reinstate pro-Soviet local communist hardliners who had been ousted by more liberal internal forces. Ultimately, until the American invasion of Iraq, the last time outright invasion occurred was in 1945 when the US defeated Germany and Japan and sought to substitute its authority for that of the Nazis and the Japanese imperial government.
...
Occupying Iraq: The lessons of history
Could this be worth a try?
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace