Quote:
Originally Posted by Adux
Equilibrium,
Thanks for the reply, I am at work; I will reply to your rest of the posts,
If the above were true then, I am mystified. The biggest terrorist funders and trainers are Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. There are direct links to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in 9/11. Actually you have the most number of terrorist camps in pakistan after Aghanistan followed by Sudan. If the people were indeed fustrated of regime's it was neither Iraq nor Iran. It was Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
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And that was the paradox that the Bush Administration believed could only be solved by Iraq.
The US compelling its main Middle Eastern allies to reform their governments would seriously compromise the alliances upon which stability depended. Iraq provided ideal geographic and political conditions- it was in the center of the region and featured a enemy of the US. Regime change in Iraq would provide leverage to compel the other nations to reform. From about 2003-2004, the Bush Administration pressured various Middle Eastern governments to reform their domestic governance, Saudi Arabia conducted municipal elections, Egypt had a Presidential election (of course, Mubarak undermined it) and in Lebanon, a pro-reform backlash took place against the Syrian government's influence in the country.
The worsening situation in Iraq from late 2004 to mid 2007 discredited the Bush Administration's policy by providing the pretext for the regional governments to justify their anti-reform policies by claiming that Democratic reforms would lead to Iraq-style chaos.