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crouse · 10-15-2003, 12:37 AM

First Transfer of Authority From Coalition to Iraqis
http://www.centcom.mil/CentcomNews/Stories/10_03/4.htm

Quote:

Lt. Col T.C. Williams, commander, 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, also spoke at the ceremony. He spoke of his fondness for the Iraqi people and said that their cooperation with the coalition made the event possible. �I am proud of the spirit of cooperation between the coalition and the Ministerial Guard,� he said.

The ceremony concluded with the playing of the Iraqi national anthem and a ceremonial exchange of an AK-47 assault rifle between a U.S. soldier and a member of the Ministerial Guard to symbolize the transfer of authority. �The Americans did well to give back this facility to the Iraqi people,� said Hady Bouhy, one of the 412 guards assigned to the 23,000-acre complex. �It shows great progress.�

shahani · 10-15-2003, 04:17 AM

Question is whether such transfers of power are ceremonial in nature or whether the Iraqi's will have the power/authority to make decisions affecting them.

Or will the be titular in nature? And manipulated like puppets by Beemer and the US Military.

Will they be making key decisions about Iraqi oil, reconstruction contracts and so on?

Or will they decide the color of road signs and how many trees are to be planted.

Points to ponder.

Personally, I think if its a real transfer of real authority with no US interference, then its a first step in establishing long term peace in the region.

But if Bush has a short term political and economic agenda and a strong oil-military lobby to answer to, then I'm afraid this will only make matters worse than they are.

If that is possible.

Epidemic · 10-15-2003, 07:25 AM

Could thing be worse.

Ummmm, Yeah. As bad as things are now Me thinks that they could be way worse.

you could have 50 thousand or a million Iraqis attacking US troops in random attacks. You could have every region attacking us troops instead of the attacks being almost exclusively occuring in the Baathist triangle.

Me thinks you have a case of unrealistic expectations

Mike · 10-15-2003, 09:46 AM

Things could be worse, but things could be a lot better. More attacks on U.S. soldiers, and more deaths of U.S. soldiers. Apparently some Iraqi's don't appreciate being occupied?

Epidemic · 10-15-2003, 10:05 AM

France being liberated (almost universally accepted) had french people attacking our troops. Apparently some french did not wish to be occupied by US in leu of Nazi's.

I was always quite sure that there would be opposition to us in Iraq. A middle eastern country (which has had years of tension with the US) I would expect nothing less then is happening right now in Iraq.

It is going way better then I expected. I guess the fact that I am not a complete moron has kept me from believing that there would be no resistance. The attacks represent the discontent of a few thousand malcontents at best IMO.

We are not talking about a ground swell of opposition AFAIAC.

Yeah things could be alot better as you correctly state. But the reality of the world is that it was not likely to be better.

I mean it could be alot better if the world did not have any evil dictators but that is not the world we live in now is it? It could be alot better if there was no pollution and everyone lived a life of compfort and peace. Reality check (that is not how life is) Sometimes you can improve things and people will resist those improvements because it robs them of power, or fears of the unknown or un-informed may supercede perceived benefits.

With these attacks there may even be greed involved on the part of attackers. This may not all be ideologically motivated. Baathist finds someone who is down on their luck and offers them a few thousand buckeroos to plant a bomb.