When Duct Tape Fails to Patch a Government's Cracks

What do you do when the very country you have tried to fix continues to rupture at the seams? Stand guard forever and patch it back up with duct tape and dreams? Do you just say, well, we tried and at least that was something?

Iraq has continued to break down. Tribes battling tribes, religions scrape the other at every turn and juncture. Did we do it by upsetting the equilibrium that existed before we took our stance to save them from dictatorship?

prisonplanet.com...

Some Iraqis claim they are close to civil war over several issues.

Let them fight it out. If the only thing that they understand to resolve issues is violence, why continue putting duct tape on the all the old cuts and wounds? We have done all we can there, let them figure this one out amongst themselves.

Because we got ourselves into something, and if we back out now it's going to reflect on our reputation horribly. A reputation that it seems is already bad enough.

I see that point, but does our reputation really hang in limbo over the state of Iraq right now? Everyone should be able to see that we have tried our hardest to get them set in their new government. But there comes a point when using force to keep order is just patchwork on deep crack.

Ever see the movie Equilibrium? In that movie, they decided removing all emotions from everyone by taking suppressing shots would stop all violence. The people refused to take their shots eventually and rose up to take back their old way of life. The "shot" in the case of Iraq, though, was the US thinking that a democratic government would suppress violence and unite the countrymen into a more stable governing body. The movie showed that you can't control people that don't want to be controlled. The same is true with Iraq. If it is forced it will not work.