Machiavelli wrote a man will sooner forget the murder of his father than the loss of his patrimony. The conduct of this war and its aftermath will put that statement to experimental test. My money's on Niccolo. And I'm thinking more and more of converting it to Euros. </corrosiveCynicism>
Curtiss
> I suppose that if you throw enough money and aid at them, they might shut up,
> but would the US feel happy about supporting, to the tune of billions of
> dollars, an unfriendly and resentful country? I doubt it. And with the
> wonderful plans to privatize everything in sight, and no doubt to channel
> Iraqi oil funds towards gringo enterprises, I'd say that the chances of
> any sort of democracy in Iraq are zero. Then there is the small matter of
> the tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers who have supposedly 'melted away'
> (with their small arms)... far out. This is so unbelievably reckless.