Quote:
Originally posted by Undertoad
That's fine, my second Spanish friend. Time will show us whether the US is going to be a conqueror, or whether it will give the country back to the Iraqis, as it says it will.
...
Because I promise you, if the US does not give the country back, and if no weapons are found, I will apologize to you -- and I will work to change the US government.
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So as long as we give Iraq back to the Iraqis in 50 years, then that is acceptable? Remember, we promised to leave after the liberation of Kuwait. An empty promise that resulted in Osama bin Laden. We promised to liberate Philippines after driving the Spanish out - ending up killing many tens of thousands in the resulting Civil War. We promised to not be the world's policeman yet became just that. Even worse, we are now a proactive world policeman.
But back to the simple question. We will give Iraq back to the Iraqis in one year - and completely leave? Our history traditionally says otherwise. We were not going to maintain military forces in German, Italy, and Japan - and look what happened.
America is not building something like ten major military bases from Rumania to Turkmenistan for no reason at all. Those new bases would only be necessary if preemption is America's new "proactive policeman" foreign policy (which begs another question - "Who's next?").
In short, I believe Undertoad's promise to be both moot and supplanted by future events. Events will make that promise null and void - as above histories repeatedly demonstrate.