Quote:
Originally Posted by hoyacoug
In short, I fail to see how this is an instance of "one group would get it right out of the two competing camps."
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I know. I'm just telling you that it is impossible for any of us to divorce ourselves from our hindsight perspective.
Also, and I may just be ignorant, but I'm not aware of us ever having failed in installing a new government. I can think of examples where we were unsucessful in trying to prop up a government or a faction,but none where we ousted the old government and started afresh unsucessfully.
You cited Japan and Germany, but we also invaded Panama and ousted Noriega. That was followed by several democratic elections. The overthrow of the North Vietnamese and North Korean governments was advocated by some during the respective wars of the same name but never attempted. In large measure McCarther's advocacy of that is what got him fired.
The CIA and MI6 aided the Shah in retaking power in 1953, but he had been in charge for more than a decade before that and was not successfully overthrown until 1979. That was a success that lasted 26 years which is an eternity if you're French (gratuitous shot, couldn't help it).
I would agree that each of those examples is distinguishable from Iraq which is actually pretty unique. What is the list of failures that you have in mind that would have clearly guided us away from this path? I just can't think of them but I may have overlooked something obvious.