US FORCES could be needed in Iraq for a decade to battle insurgents, the top coalition commander said while vowing a "forthright" review in September of whether the present troop surge is working.
General David Petraeus said there was broad recognition in Washington that Iraq's daunting challenges would not be resolved "in a year or even two years.
"In fact, typically, I think historically, counter-insurgency operations have gone at least nine or 10 years," he said.
Who thinks that any American will tolerate another ten years of roadside bombings, IED's, limbless kids coming home, dead kids coming home, beheadings, triple extended tours of duty, 10-20 dead Americans per month, and trillions in blood and treasure to force a God-forsaken catbox of a Muslim country to convert from 11th century barbarism into a functioning democracy?
It's almost time folks. Time to bring the troops home and leave Iraq to whatever thug dictator is willing to step up and restore order. Even if it is a reign of terror, every mid-east country except Israel is governed by brute force and 11th century-style terror. It's a way of life over there and there's nothing we can do about it.
The Bush legacy folks...10 more years of death, dismemberment, and destruction...to what end?
5 comments:
"please explain to me the righteousness of this..."
OK. The simplest explanation is this is a committment we made as a country when we chose the course of action we did.
If your statement correctly represents your views that Iraq is "...a God-forsaken catbox of a Muslim country to convert from 11th century barbarism into a functioning democracy", of course the answer is clear to you, get out. But based on that view, no effort was ever worthwhile and no good would ever come from it. You are beyond convincing because your perspective is too negative to conceive of a positive outcome or consider that things could be much worse.
For those who have not closed their minds, we need to remember what success will mean and we need to seriously think about what will happen if we pull out before stability is achieved. As a little perspective, our own Revolutionary War was fought over eight years, with victory not really solidified until 30 years later in the War of 1812. Of course the circumstances here are different. But the end we are trying to achieve is a peaceful, functioning, liberal democracy that will help all of us in the long run. Will it work? I don't know, but if we give up the answer is as negative as Ed's outlook.
The outlook is negative because the results are disastrous. This war was poorly planned, with idiotic rules of engagement, and poorly executed by Rummy and others. Anonymous, please answer the following to justify your rosey outlook...
-Why didn't anybody forsee the massive insurgency that we face now?
-Why didn't anybody forsee that Iran, Syria, Pakistan, and other terrorist states would surely underwrite insurgency terrorist operations in Iraq?
-Why are we fighting a kinder, gentler war in which we avoid civilian casualties at all costs, when the terrorists themselves are disguised as civilians?
-Why is it worth thousands of additional American lives and trillions in taxpayer dollars to prop up a phony republic which is moribund at best because government personell have allegiances to religious sects(Sunni, Shia, whatever) that supercede the rule of law?
-Why didn't we completely destroy Iraq like we did Germany and Japan and rebuild it from there?
-In the end, ten years from now, what will have been accomplished? What do you see as having been successful anonymous? Here's what I see in Iraq in ten years...a weak, propped-up government, ripe for overthrow. A never-ending supply of terrorists suicide bombers and IED's flowing from the usual regional suspects, Iran, Syria, etc. The American death toll easily exceeding 10,000. You get the picture.
The problem I have is that we should have gone in, killed everything that moved, and started over. There is no other way to build a democratic nation in the middle of a non-democratic-friendly region. America is hated over there, and any puppet regime we install will be likewise hated. For me, if we are not going to do this thing right, then it's not worth doing.
That's not defeatist anonymous, it's pragmatic and realist.
The Green Lantern..... Hilary can solve this deboggle. If you are unhappy with Irag, please listen to her wisdom. She is our Mother Teresa.
deboggle? Is that a word? Did you mean to say boondoggle?
Ed,
You lose all credibility with statements like "we should have gone in, killed everything that moved, and started over".
I'm sure I need to explain why to you. But to everyone else, the "why" is obvious. Ask one of your friends who has at least one foot planted in the real world.
Anonymous (the first one)
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