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Purposeful American Strategy?

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  • 21-05-2004 3:05pm
    #1
    davej
    Registered Users Posts: 1,186 ✭✭✭


    Is it just me or have the Americans been purposefully doing everything within their power to make as big a mess as possible in Iraq ? I've heard comments from lot's of people along the lines of "If they had tried to make a bigger mess of Iraq, they couldn't have done a better job"

    Is what they are doing to the Iraqi's designed to strike fear into the hearts of the other middle eastern countries?
    Cross us and we'll bomb your villages/weddings, torture/murder/rape/ your men, and generally turn the country into an extremist-ridden disaster area. Oh and here's thousands of photos and video clips to show just how cruel we can be.

    Could it be a calculated risk on the part of the US ? While Bush is under a lot of pressure right now, when they hand over power next month will the American press begin to give Iraq less coverage? When problems arise won't the Americans then be able to say "This is a matter for the UN" ?

    davej


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    #2
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    I tend to be a conspiracy theorist and even I think that's a stretch to be honest. I don't think there's any doubt that they rushed into it and refused advice from people that were opposed to the "war", but on the whole I think it was purely incompetence and "gung-ho-edness" that's caused all the mess. They simply thought they knew better imho. "Simple" being the operative word.

    I'd be of the opinion that if they thought they could get away with pulling out of it at this stage, they would. Obviously they can't though. They well and truly screwed themselves from most angles.

    adam


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    #3
    Moriarty
    Registered Users Posts: 6,007 ✭✭✭Moriarty


    Ever heard of Occam's Razor, davej? :)


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    #4
    davej
    Registered Users Posts: 1,186 ✭✭✭davej


    Ever heard of Occam's Razor, davej?

    Of course i have, but i think Hanlon's Razor is more along the lines of what you are thinking.

    Yes, this is probably true. But there's possibly two levels to this. You can apply Hanlon's razor to the grunts/country bumpkins who carried out the acts but I don't think it applies to Rumsfeld et al.

    davej


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    #5
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,414 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    I would also apply the Ninety-Ninety Rule, i.e. 90% of it is stupidity (from general down to private) and the other 90% is maliciousness and / or ambivalence.

    I think Iraq today is a function of 1990s economics - asset sweating, "can do" attitudes (as in "you can do" not "I can do"), absence of and in-built redundancy or contingency at micro or macro levels and hoping everything goes well.


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