On Fri, 07 Jul 2006 12:51:39 -0700, Jay Honeck wrote:

Think India, 1938-ish, British agents inciting Hindus versus Muslims.
(And, yes, eventually the British left, but that doesn't mean their
tactics didn't work for a long, long time.)

No, if you sit back and view the thing from a cold, analytical, long-range
strategic point of view, what's going on in Iraq is pretty close to what
needs to happen -- and this whole thing about "creating a breeding ground
for terrorists" is just blather. They are killing EACH OTHER now, and I
think that's been part of the plan from the start.

Um...what you're writing is that having a nuclear arms race between India
and Pakistan is a Good Thing? That Pakistan therefore was able to sell
nuclear technology to various nations including Iran and N. Korea is
pretty close to what needed to happen?

Is it a Good Thing that Iraq is providing so fertile a training ground for
terrorists? Recall that Afghanistan was Bin Laden's training ground. How
will the US suffer in future decades from the terrorists being trained
today?

Personally, I believe that you're giving our intelligence services more
credit than they deserve. Though, admittedly, it would be pretty easy to
incite violence in Iraq today.

But I think it pretty clear that the animosity between Muslim and Hindu in
south asia has served the world badly, and there's no reason to expect
better of Sunni/Shiite animosity.

- Andrew