George Soros

I heard an interesting interview this evening on NPR as I was driving home. George Soros, the bane of all conservative Republicans was being interviewed by John Podesta. I found it interesting not that Soros took his expected anti George bush stance but that he expressed some very Bushian ideas. For example, Mr. Soros said that it was a legitimate use of force to remove a tyrant from power. In fact, he implied that if that had been the reason for the invasion of Iraq there would have been a lot more legitimacy for it. He stated (paraphrased) that the botched invasion of Iraq made the use of force to remove other repressive tyrants much more difficult. He used Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe as an example. He also said that a unilateral and immediate withdrawal from Iraq would be a disaster. We could not withdraw until there was some form of legitimate government that could effectively rule the country. He stated that if we withdrew now, the rampant chaos that is seen in Baghdad would spread across the country causing a total collapse of the Iraqi society. This collapse could very likely lead to a major regional war as the Sunni nations to Iraq’s west supported the Sunnis in Iraq while Iran to the east supported the Shiites. I was a bit surprised that he didn’t mention the absolute chaos that would erupt if in the midst of this collapse the Kurds in Iraq’s north declared their independence; an action that would draw an immediate and strong military response from Turkey at the least.
It was overall a much more interesting interview than I expected it to be.