Archives for 2004

One of the main talking points of many Democrats and Senator Kerry is that if they had done things ‘their way,’ they would have received a lot more international support and we would not be shuldering the burden in Iraq. Despite the fact that this is laughable statement due to the fact that the rest of the world really doesn’t have the military capability or willingness to achieve what we have achieved in Iraq, I wonder where they get the idea that they somehow would be able to persuade the ‘international community’ to provide more military assistance. There certainly is little precedent for this sort of statement, and Afghanistan is a sterling example.

Very few will argue that the world was united in regards to the mission in Afghanistan. Today, thousands of troops from NATO countries are deployed, and if you examine the rhetoric, everyone is 100% behind the mission and reconstruction there. Except, the actions of the international communities suggest otherwise:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai declared an international meeting on development aid a success Thursday, but warned Afghanistan’s battle against the illegal drug trade was a long-term struggle.

International donors at the two-day summit pledged more than $8 billion in reconstruction aid to Afghanistan. That sum is to be delivered during the next three years with Afghanistan receiving nearly $4.5 billion in aid this year…

More than 700 delegates from more than 50 countries were at the conference, including Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The United States pledged almost half this year’s aid and donated an additional $123 million to combating Afghanistan’s illegal drug trade. Mr. Powell said America is also prepared to provide troops for this purpose.

Do the math- 49 countries contribute half the aid, we contribute the other half. That is the kind of support that we get when the international community is behind us. With that in mind, when John Kerry and the anti-Iraq Democrats makes statements like this:

We need to internationalize both the military and civilian sides of the occupation and build a coalition that will provide tangible assistance in terms of boots on the ground and money in the coffers for Iraqi reconstruction. Only in this way will we reduce the risk to American service members and alleviate some of the financial burden on the American taxpayer for reconstruction.

Just giggle and admire their audacity.

How Serious Are TheyPost + Comments (6)

Sometimes I wonder if maybe I just view the world differently than everyone else, other times I just wonder if Americans have our own unique worldview. When I read stories like this, it makes me wonder:

Europe reacted with horror Thursday to the grisly images of four American bodies being mutilated in Iraq, with some newspapers speculating about a quicker U.S. troop withdrawal and others saying it could serve as a new standard for attacks…

In the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, which published similar pictures, columnist Gianni Riotta noted that the attack came during the U.S. presidential election campaign, and that previous U.S. decisions to withdraw troops, in Lebanon and Somalia, have come after particularly bloody attacks.

”If the American public opinion is impressed by the fierce torture of Fallujah and by the endless stream of army dead … it could force the White House to do a turnaround, hand over governing to the Iraqis, leave some troops based there, and then get out,” he wrote.

This is, I must note, the completely different reaction that I had. Yes, I was horrified by the disgusting inhumanity of it, but at the same time, there was never even a thought of cutting and running. My reaction was that we must hunt down those who did this, and that this is more evidence that we need to fix this region. I would like to think that the majority of Americans se things the same way, but I don’t know sometimes.

Cultural DividePost + Comments (6)