If I Became President, Part 2

Again, I wrote this very late at night and it is preachy. Excuse that. Enjoy:
How to deal with Iraq:
Listen. America messed up. That’s no secret. Ever since Vietnam, the US has protected its economic and security interests in the world by covertly (and sometimes not so covertly) tampering with the governments of other nations. I am talking about the Iran Contra, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the shipment of weapons to anti-Soviet Afghan fighters, the revolutions in many Latin American countries, etc. Those were short term solutions. They supposedly kept America safe from the danger of Communism. Well, now we are seeing the effects of those actions. Many countries hate us. Can you blame them? Not all the people living in these countries were bad people, and here comes the US to overthrow their government and support violent and bloody revolutions. Part of the blame for the problems we see today should lay on the CIA and other US organizations throughout the Cold War (60’s-80’s). That’s why so many people hate us. That, and the current situation in Iraq. Heck, we were pretty damn popular during the Clinton years! So, here is my solution:
Fire all the old white guys who some how convinced America that this was the right thing to do. All of those Vietnam era guys who enjoy “the game” of politics; who like scheming behind the scenes. This isn’t the Cold War. We don’t need to worry about provoking the USSR anymore. We learned that all this scheming comes back to bite you in the ass. They need to go.
We are in Iraq. Pick up any history textbook and you will see that if we leave that country right now and completely withdraw all of the troops in a short amount of time, there will be a bloody civil war. That is a fact. It might be a civil war or a war that is influenced by another outside power (Iran, anybody?), but it will occur. No questions asked. If we left quickly, there would be a power struggle for the vacuum left by the American army. To leave now would be one of the most selfish acts ever committed in history. We went into their country under false pretenses, deposed their leader (which might be the only good thing that happened there. No doubt, Saddam needed to go. That was Bush Sr.’s big mistake), destroyed their capital and killed many thousands of their innocent people. We screwed it up, and dammit, we better fix it. My plan would be to directly address those who are blowing themselves up, trying to kill American soldiers and good Iraqi people (the majority of Iraqis, for that matter). I would say, you want us to leave? We won’t leave yet. We will leave when we clean up our mess. I propose we treat Iraq like we treated Europe and Japan after WWII. The Marshall Plan called for using that most powerful American tool: Industry. Re-build Iraq using American money and American companies. Let the Iraqi’s actually supply labor. That way, they get a new, state of the art infrastructure and the dignity of building their own houses and highways. America makes money, Iraq makes money. Also, all of the bidding and contracts will be open to public scrutiny. None of this Halliburton crap. The companies that get contracts should be regulated, scrutinized, investigated, and applauded as they are going to fairly help re-build Iraq in Iraqi style. We don’t need to build American apartment buildings, but Iraqi architects can design the buildings in Iraqi fashion, with America supplying the heavy machinery and materials. We have the experience, let’s use it. It might take a long time, but heck, the Iraqi people deserve it.


...and stepping off of the soapbox
-Matt