Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to Good point.

re: Good point.
gbaikie — (archived)

"If we actually were occupying Iraq, in the same way we occupied Japan, there probably would have been a lot less violence.

Nobody has ever really tried what's being tried in Iraq."

It's true that in many aspects Iraq is unique.
But Japan is many ways was a functional society- with Japan the main problem in regards to the US was it "merely" was our enemy. Japan could be said to have many things wrong with it and that even extends into the present, but it was a functioning society. Iraq was and still is dysfunctional- Iraq was probably less dysfunctional 60 years ago. Iraq as well many countries could be said to be causualities of the Cold war. In fact you could make the case that no country escaped damage from the Cold war- including the US.
But all of this can lead to a quagmire [New Deal, etc]- let me instead return to your first point:

There is no doubt that the Coalition forces [which was/is mostly influenced by the US govt] WAS occupying Iraq. AND because Iraq was so dysfunctional there was no way we could have closely followed the Japanese model. Iraq and Afghanistan are following an unproven [and a littered unsuccessful previous historical record] attempt at nation building. And S Korea is more applicable in this sense than Japan. But considering the speed in which we are attempting to do this [and this speed in my opinion is needed] Iraq is completely unprecedented.

One way you could look at Iraq is, we helped them overthrow a dictator and are helping them in a "controlled" revolution- at light speed.
Now, some probably think it's at slug speed- but I contend that these people don't understand how huge bureaucracies normally/historically function.

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