they way i see it, we have pretty much two options with iraq. the first would be to run it like we did japan after wwII. that would be putting a US general in charge of the whole country, and basically have it under marshal law until the time we thought we had influenced culture enough that we could let them run it with out acting like barbarians. the other option is to simply walk away. wash our hands of them and get the fuck out of there. i don't know what the right answer is, but what we are doing is simply a clusterfuck.
I don't think there is a right or wrong answer. It's a 'damned if we do, damned if we don't situation' we got our selves into.
With the age of communication influencing what governments can get away with overseas, it'd be difficult to put up a temporary dictatorship long enough to effect Iraq like we did Japan. On the other hand, we can construct the perfect democratic government for them and it won't matter worth a damn if they vote for religious fundamentalism. They're educated by their culture and their religion to tolerate violence and discrimination. To a far lesser extent, we have the same problem in our own country. If we can't fix it here, we've no hope of fixing it there.
But if we walk away and mind our own business, there's nothing to stop the fundamentalists from taking power and eventually becoming an enemy again.
I think the best we can do is construct an education system that reaches every child. Then we hope that after a few generations the culture becomes more moderate. We can't replace their religion, in a free society, but we can add some reason.
