Comments on: Fighting Islamic terror – who knows best?

By: Neil Craig

Neil Craig — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 14:57:00 +0000

France had a million Frenchmen living in Algeria who could not stay there.

By comparison the US deciding how to pull out is a very easy decision.

By: john b

john b — Wed, 19 Nov 2003 10:26:00 +0000

Sorry. "A capitalist Iraqi democracy" would've been more accurate.

And quite right too. Nationalisation is the direct cause of dictatorship in places like Iraq. When all the resources are in the private sector, dodgy tyrants can never gain or keep power.

Just ask Fulgencio Batista.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 19 Nov 2003 08:19:00 +0000

Definitely an astute article.

"France occupied Algeria with the aim of making it French, whereas the US merely intends to make Iraq an Iraqi democracy."

*Cough!*

I agree with you to an extent: Algeria was made a constitutional part of France, whereas the US envisions, in theory, an independent Iraq.

But - and I'm acutely aware that this is a very stereotypical leftie response - the US at the very least intends to make Iraq's economy look quite American, as evidenced by the way they have illegally and undemocratically sold off Iraq's state-owned businesses, at prices which are almost certainly much lower than they would be were Iraq not recovering from a war.