Originally Posted by 7thson
Maybe not complete, but pretty close, and unless you have seen what it was like there first hand maybe you are just misled. You see I look at things from a different point of view. Is it better for the everyday citizen? I have first hand experience and I know that it is. Is the economy and the infastructure more screwed up now then it was before? Hell yes it is, but that is because it needed to be torn down and rebuilt. There was no room for it in a free country which Iraq hopefully will be someday. Except for the palaces Iraq was pretty much always a wasteland, I have been from border to border the dirt is the same now as it was 100 years ago. Wasteland yes, but not because of the war.
Okay, here's a summary of the facts as I see them:
BEFORE: Iraq is a functioning society with most of its infrastructure intact. True, it is ruled by a ruthless despot, but it has operational social institutions. It has one of the highest literacy rates in the Islamic world, it is a secular society (as opposed to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran, etc. which are militantly Islamic and ruled by Islamic law). Women in Iraq have a high social standing (again, as opposed to Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, etc., where they are actively oppressed). It has significant prosperity and potential prosperity from its oil revenue.
AFTER: Chaos reigns. Guerilla militias routinely engage in street warfare, kidnappings, beheadings, etc. The infrastructure is in ruins. The army is disbanded. There is little or no security or stability in the nation. Lives are routinely destroyed. It has become a haven for terrorism, especially the Al Quaeda, which had no significant presence in Iraq prior to the deposition of Saddam. It is, in effect, a stone age society.
That's the state of conditions in Iraq--or, at least, my understanding of the same. What does this tell you--that the nation is on the road to a stable, democratic society? More likely, it will go the route of Afghanistan. And, in fact, Afghanistan is an eerily parallel scenario.
Let me explain:
After the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, the Afghan resistance, or Mujahedin, was funded and sponsored by the CIA. One of the most significant figures among the Mujahedin was none other than... Osama bin Laden. That's right... the architect of 9/11, no less. This wealthy young Saudi prince abandoned his affluent lifestyle in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and fled to Afghanistan in an idealistic quest to fight for Islam against the occupying Soviet forces in Afghanistan. And, I repeat, Osama bin Laden and his Mujahedin resistance fighters were funded by the CIA and the Reagan and Bush (Sr.) administrations, no less. After the Soviets left Afghanistan, the country came under the control of the Taliban, the militant, brutally chauvinistic Islamic fundamentalists. This Taliban regime became the base of operations for the Al Quaeda as they plotted acts of terrorism against the world at large.
Iraq as it stands today looks scarily similar to Afghanistan way back when. What will happen when the US finally withdraws its forces? Well, the insurgents are already at large. Al Quaeda already has a foothold in the land (where, previously, it had none). Here's my take on the scenario. Sorry if it sounds scary, but I'm just trying to be straightforward, not scare anyone. After the US withdraws, the militants, backed by Al Quaeda, take over the country (much as the Mujahedin/Taliban took over Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew) and form an Islamic fundamentalist regime (much like the Taliban in Afghanistan). Iraq then becomes the new base of operations for the Al Quaeda and, pretty soon, we will see Al Quaeda leaders from all over moving to Iraq to settle. Some years hence, Osama bin Laden emerges from one of the hills in the wilds of Afghanistan's northwest frontier province and travels to Iraq to take residence in one of Saddam's palaces. So, thanks to George W. Bush's misguided invasion of Iraq, he literally hands Iraq over to Al Quaeda on a plate, while completely rationalizing and justifying (in the Islamic mind) the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. What happens next? Nuclear holocaust? God alone knows.
Sorry if all this sounds scary. Admittedly this is a worst-case scenario, but it is, in my opinion, very, very plausible, if you really look at events in the recent past.
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