Foreign Policy

Sadaam Hussein, Vicious Dictator Or Just Hard Ass Warden?

September 14, 2006 ⋅  E-Mail Article ⋅  Print Article ⋅ Post a comment

I have heard the question asked many times so I will put it out there for you. Was Sadaam Hussein the worst dictator ever in the Middle East or was he just the toughest warden on the block? I have heard this question several times and I think he was a little bit of both. However, with his removal we are now seeing the Iranian Shiite influence in Iraq and as long as Iran believes it can control Iraq there will never be stability between the Sunni’s and Shiites regardless of our attempts in Iraq. Most notably, the Iraqi politicians’ recently had 104 of the 200 something elected politicians sign on to legislature that would force the removal of all foreign troops in Iraq by a certain date. Does this sound like something a fledgling government wants or something Iran wants? There is also the resurgence of the al Sadr army in Iraq and this is a strongly Shiite Iranian influenced militia that despises Americans and any semblance of Sunni culture. Add this all together and you see that Sadaam was a vicious dictator but he may have also been a needed predator to some point. We have eliminated the apex predator in the Middle East Ocean and now we have seen the results. Next time we need to better learn how to marginalize an individual without disrupting the ecosystem of a culture we just don’t understand.

We have the resurgence of al Qaeda in Afghanistan, bombings in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, and unruliness growing in Pakistan. However, the only terrorism we see in Iraq was brought on by the presence of American soldiers who are in Iraq actually trying to help the Iraqi people. There is misunderstanding by the Iraqi’s and the American’s but should our soldiers be paying the price for this misunderstanding? This Iraqi policy is a failed policy and now with Iran influencing much of the Iraqi politicians I feel we are in an uphill battle we may never totally win or even understand. I think we need to bring our soldiers home until we have the war figured out, this is not a learn on the job thing it is life and death and we should not expose our military to this situation without providing them the game plan to win and exit the battlefield. They are not politicians, they are soldiers. They should fight and leave; they should not be marginalized into positions of night watchmen and candy hand-outers. Ask the brave soldiers over at Argghh, they can tell you about war and battles, I am sure they are fit to fight not to be goodwill ambassadors put in dangerous positions they should really not be in.

I believe the only way to make sure America is strong is to make sure domestic America is strong. We need to invest more heavily in American business, defense, and education. We need to make sure we are the best, brightest, and working-est people on the planet. We can only protect America by making domestic America economically and technically strong. We need to quit wasting time trying to fight an uphill battle with a culture we just do not understand yet. We need more due diligence, more investigation, and much more understanding. We can only win this war if we truly know our enemies and understand our position.

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