Posted on 11/24/2008 6:03:00 AM PST by Dukes Travels
We have won the Iraq War.
It was a war that saw many enemies, from both within and outside of Iraq. It was a war that started out without sufficient troops and with dreadful policies on the ground. And it was a war that saw vigorous attempts of premature withdrawal from within the side that eventually won it.
So it took five years, but with the help and sacrifice of the bravest troops on Earth, we did it. We still have some cleanup to do, yet it is clear and unambiguous that we have won.
In March 2003, Iraq was still ruled by one of history’s most vicious tyrants. Saddam Hussein had started wars with his neighbors and launched ruthless campaigns against his own people. He had used weapons of mass destruction on his own civilians. He had violated numerous United Nations resolutions. He built palaces while he starved his people. He and his two sons received intense thrill and gratification from personally torturing and killing other human beings.
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president bush will never get credit for this in the media.
Correct. They have already transitioned to a “Failure in Afghanistan” storyline. Iraq no longer exists. Leftists are vile.
Yes we DID win militarily in Iraq.
Like we won militarily in WW1 and WW2.
And it was a military victory we really needed. Saddam was a destabilizing menace who needed to be eliminted for an entire host of valid reasons.
But like WW1 and WW2, we lost the peace. We replaced an anit-western Baathist Dictator with a popularly elected anti-American Islamist “Decmocracy” (as closely as that term can be defined in the Islamic mind). The average Iraqi has come away from this experience with very little fondness or appreciation for what we did. This should not be a surprise as they are Muslims and we are not.
The Saudis came out ahead as did the Gulf Oil states, which, aside from use of a limited area for military staging, contributed not one dollar, not one soldier and not one life to struggle which greatly benefitted their own security.
And once we pull out of Iraq militarliy, it will relapse into the kind of mindless, anarchic, violent society typical of any Islamic polity unless a strong dictator comes along and imposes a degree of military stability on it.
We’ve won virtually nothing in Iraq unless the government situation is straightened out. If that doesn’t happen, all we’ve done militarily will be for naught. Getting rid of Hussein will be but a minor footnote.
IMO, we should have kept more of an eye on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“They have already transitioned to a “Failure in Afghanistan” storyline.”
Not failure, but major problems exist and worse ones are possible. And it’s not just Afghanistan, it’s also Pakistan, a country that, unlike Iraq, DOES have nuclear weapons. If that doesn’t concern you, you’re not paying attention.
That's not what I hear from soliers returning from there, but I suppose such a thing is difficult to quantify through anecdotes alone.
He, and Oh Bahma, will only get credit for financial defeat here at home.
We also have the dramatic increase in violence against Chaldean and Assyrian Christians whose ancestors lived there in thriving civilizations when all the Arabs were still in the desert chasing Camels, and I come away with a bitter angry feeling in my mouth.
IT seems like our Middle Eastern policies have recently been policies designed mainly to benefit the Wahhabist fanatics who control Saudi Arabia and their correligionsts in the Gulf States.
Even recently, with the seizure of oil tankers by Somali MUSLIM pirates, the Saudis expected non-Arabs to assume the military burden and loss of life of protecting THEIR oil.
Frankly, I HATE the Saudis and feel pretty much the same about all Muslims. They hate us in general and everything the west represents, even if SOME of them INDIVIDUALLY don't hate some of us INDIVIDUALLY.
Thanks, but I'm paying attention. I watched the video of General McKiernan's speech to the Atlantic Council. I watched MG Stone's press conference. I watched the press conferences of Colonels Johnson and Spizer in the last two weeks.
I real Longwarjournal.net daily and listen to Covert Radio with regular appearances by Tim Lynch.
So, yeah, I'm paying attention. How about you?
correction: MG Cone, not Stone.
You’re living in the past. Nothing you just wrote comports with any of the facts on the ground in November, 2008 Iraq.
Can I quote you after we pull out?
And the mass lfight of thousands of Christians form their homes in Iraq is a fact - and VERY recent. It has appeared with links in this forum.
Can I quote you after we pull out?
And the mass lfight of thousands of Christians form their homes in Iraq is a fact - and VERY recent. It has appeared with links in this forum.
We took the most secular state in the Middle East and a population who bore the American people no grudge—a potential ally that could anchor a new Western-neutral state, and in our haste to depose a nasty piece of work (that we helped arm) plunged said population into chaos that will outlive many of us. Just because your thumb is purple doesn’t mean you have democracy.
We wasted our brave soldiers, we wasted our money and as a country we sullied our good name. Why? Beacuse we could. Sad, sad waste because of the hubris of a few. If that is winning... well, enjoy the parade.
Interesting first post there, so a Saddam Hussein led Iraq was a potential ally who could anchor a new Western-neutral state?
bttt
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