Summary
Slade Gorton, a Republican former Senator from Washington state, lit up and fired back. "The congressman just said the idea of democracy in Iraq is a pipe dream," Gorton noted. "Maybe that's his position- let 'em all fight it out until the last one is dead."
"Iraq should teach us some modesty about the idea that we can promote democracy at the end of a gun," he said. Pointing to Iraq's tribal and religious tradition, he predicted that if democracy takes root in Iraq, "it's not going to be something in any way madein-America."It was a debate between Optimism and Pessimism, with each speaker taking both sides of the argument in turn. [Jack Murtha] pessimistic about US involvement, optimistic that the Iraqis would figure it out themselves once we leave. Gorton optimistic about the admittedly limited progress being made, pessimistic about what would happen if US forces pull out. ("If we withdraw, we have Somalia.") [Richard Haass], slightly less optimistic about the current situation, slightly more pessimistic about leaving it up to the Iraqis. ("It'll be Lebanon on steroids.")See the full content of this document
Extract
A Humbling Lesson
A half-hour into the conversation Monday night, the air of collegial civility that prevails during every Panetta Lecture Series event threatened to give way to an old-fashioned political dust-up. The topic of the evening was "Can Democra...
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