Posted on 08/12/2005 4:28:54 PM PDT by churchillbuff
Writing about Vietnam in the foreword to David Halberstam's book "The Best and the Brightest," Senator John McCain said:
"It was a shameful thing to ask men to suffer and die, to persevere through god-awful afflictions and heartache, to endure the dehumanizing experiences that are unavoidable in combat, for a cause that the country wouldn't support over time and that our leaders so wrongly believed could be achieved at a smaller cost than our enemy was prepared to make us pay."
That point is no less relevant now. The administration is not willing to commit to an all-out effort to defeat the insurgents in Iraq, and is equally unwilling to reverse course and bring the troops home. Most Americans are abandoning the idea that the war can be "won." Polls are showing that they're tired of the conflict and its relentlessly mounting toll. It's hard to imagine that the population at large will be willing to sacrifice thousands of additional American lives over several more years in pursuit of goals that remain as murky as ever.
Ask a thousand different suits in Washington why we're in Iraq and you'll get a thousand different answers. Ask how we plan to win the war, and you'll get a blank stare.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
MSM never misses an opportunity to invoke McCain, even though McCain supports POTUS and this war.
No End in Sight in Cuba, Germany, Japan, Korea or the
Balkans either. I demand an exit strategy.
Aren't we still in Bosnia? I seem to recall Clinton promising to have troops out of there YEARS ago.
I didn't support Clinton on Bosnia either. In fact I joined FR in 98 to protest all things Clinton.
We'll take your word on this, as one publishing in your paper would never just make up such a thing.
Interesting how one can go from "the president won't stomp the insurgents" in one paragraph to "blank stares" in another, as if the key point about squashing insurgents isn't precisely how to win.
we cannot defeat this type of insurgency ourselves - the rules of engagement for our military prevent it.
to be honest, what we need to do is detach our military, and the concept of "victory" in iraq, from car bombings and roadside bombs. those are always going to be a part of the security situation in iraq. the idea that we have to see those activities drop to near zero to declare victory, is insane. we can't do that in our own country with street crime, why should we expect it to happen in iraq?
get the iraqi forces more involved in the two activities where we take many of our KIAs - convoys and checkpoints. focus US forces on offensive operations and protecting strategic targets, and house them on bases. reduce US troop levels accordingly. I believe this is what will happen, before the 2006 elections. its the right thing to do.
we have already won the part of the war our forces are designed to win.
Neville thinks Saddam and Sons were contained! LOL
In some ways, you have to be grateful that the scum over in Iraq are not holding our troops in prisons where they can brainwash them, turn them, and send them back to the United States where they can sell out our country.
I remember.
I'll bet when Bobby Herbert was little he was one of those obnoxious little suckers that would sit in the backseat, holding his pee pee and whining, "Are we there yet?" Over and over and over...
I am so tired of hearing a comparison made between Iraq and Vietnam. We had a draft in place during Vietnam and consequently lots of people found themselves in the military who were ill-equipped to be there and definitely didn't want to be there (a certain Senator from Massataxus comes to mind) while in Iraq we have a professional and dedicated fighting force. In addition the situation in the Middle East is a definite threat to our country, whereas Vietnam was not. There are many other differences.
A constitution is getting close, and the national elections are in sight, too. Beyond that there is little the US military can do; it is up to the people. Iran is a natural enemy of Iraq, though, and perhaps the US military can show the flag now and then just as a reminder to Iran to not take action.
Your views correspond well with that of the New York Times. You wouldn't be dating Maureen Dowd, now wouldya?
In some ways, you have to be grateful that the scum over in Iraq are not holding our troops in prisons where they can brainwash them, turn them, and send them back to the United States where they can sell out our country.
Why? When they can do that to their parents over here.
Someone pointed out that our forces haven't lost an engagement since the war started (though obviously not without losing soldiers). So maybe if we retreat from Baghdad, the NYT will start printing banner headlines announcing our imminent success.
How many Nazi holdovers did how much killing after V-E Day?
This may be the only possible valid point of the article. Mr. Herbert is long on criticism but nowhere are to be seen his ideas for how to A)make Iraq a peaceful garden paradise, free of Islamonazis B)militarily completely defeat the terrorists in the next 60 days, or C)get the RAT scum bags to stop trying to kill westerners around the world.
I am willing to give the US military everything it needs to keep on ridding the planet of the vermin and I am willing to give the Pres the benefit of the doubt about how to do that. I have my own ideas about how to rid the world of verminous lice, but they are so terrible that I dare not utter them in a public forum.
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