Quote:
Originally Posted by theknife
perhaps iraqis might prefer electricity, water, and basic security at this point, no?
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Wouldn't we all?
They're nice to have after all, and nicer still for the government to provide them to us. But since when have government-mandated services been necessary for survival, or even for comfort? People are perfectly capable of living their own lives and deciding their own level of comfort if you give them half a chance. The vast majority of Iraqis are noncombatants who want nothing to do with the civil war/insurgency (whichever you prefer to call it) nor the ideologies that lead to such. If they hadn't been forced into this situation perhaps they wouldn't lament it so. And they may yet find their own solutions.
If they're willing to help themselves then they deserve our support, and whatever we can do to keep the situation from deteriorating further, we're obligated to do. They're human beings after all, they deserve the chance to earn for themselves the things we've earned for ourselves. In order to give them that chance people must believe that they're actually capable of bettering themselves, and that notion is all too rare these days. What people need more than electricity, water, and basic security is to be treated as adults.