Posted on 03/19/2006 8:18:36 AM PST by SmithL
When the U.S.-led coalition attacked Iraq three years ago, the Bush administration was brimming with confidence that this would be a war only in the sense that a lot of bombs would be dropped and the military would seize, temporarily, a foreign capital. It was going to be swift, high-tech, clean.
Six weeks later, President Bush spoke in the past tense about Operation Iraqi Freedom, thanking the Iraqis who welcomed the U.S. troops and promising that democratic change would sweep the region.
Now, with sectarian violence roaring and casualties rising, the White House increasingly is talking, in the present tense, about a long war, meaning the old-fashioned kind -- "the crucible with the blood and the dust and the gore," as Gen. Richard Myers, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last fall.
Three years on, experts from the left and the right say, the costly Iraq war has barely begun, and if there are to be broad benefits, as the president still promises, they could be years away.
William Odom, a retired lieutenant general who ran Army intelligence and later the National Security Agency during the Reagan administration, has called the Iraqi adventure "the greatest strategic disaster in our history."
"What we've learned is that you cannot impose a Pax Americana solution," said Conrad Crane, a Middle East expert at the Army War College who is leading a crash rewriting of the military's counterinsurgency manual in response to the unanticipated tenacity of the resistance. "You are not going to have a Western-style democracy, and you're not going to have a market economy."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
In other words, you don't want to deal with the fact that she has been in Iraq for a long time and actually knows first hand with her own eyes what is going on there.
Or alternately: You don't care to know about the truth, you'd rather defend someone's wrong opinion who hasn't been there and knows nothing about it.
I refer you to it and suggest that it prove Allegra had the correct conclusion about him/her to begin with.
Thank you for pointing to this. This clarification makes the original poster look like a lunatic and I was certainly wrong about his intent.
That is all I asked of the original poster in another message - clarification of the position, before we attack.
I believe ALL of us (Allegra included), were wrong though. I don't think DU would support the position taken by Conservative Physics. Nor would most on FR.
Wonder what Russia,China or for that matter our good friends at the time the French would think of that.
Or for that matter the islamofascist views of Pakistan and their nuclear arsenal.
I appreciate that Allegra is in Iraq and I support her on that. I only referenced her "standing" on FR. Like I said, I wasn't going to be bullied for questioning her attack on a poster that may have been on her side (the poster has since proven to ba a lunatic rater than a spineless pacifist, which I acknowledged in a post prior to this one).
You don't care to know about the truth, you'd rather defend someone's wrong opinion who hasn't been there and knows nothing about it.
I had no intention of defending anybody. Rather, I merely asked to understand the intent of the post before everybody begins pilining on.
I think it is a reflection of the political times.
This site was instrumental in the undoing of the "old media" and yet we still get sucked into their gloom and doom,destroy Conservatives at any cost mindset.
Leads to much frustration.
Your reaction was to my "BLAM! My head just exploded," post. That was a commentary on how many times I see things just like that post and it gets frustrating. If I want to see that kind of thing, I can turn on CNN or read the New York Times. Or go to DU.
I take great umbrage to people making uninformed statements that denigrade our troops' great work and the mission here. I saw the poster's intent immediately.
I was in a lighthearted mood tonight due to various happenings and that is the response I made. Nothing real big to read into it. I'm not apologizing for it; I yam what I yam. I'll make frivolous comments again as well.
We don't have a lot in the way of entertainment here. We take what we can get.
Peace.
I want pics from London when you go!
Remind me if I ever get into a debate with you that I would do well to not.
Stay safe.
:)
All's well that ends well! We're all on the same side, right? London is gonna be in for some fun when my sister Allegra and I hit it...we'll show the Brits what its like to laugh again (especially at yourselves)...
Yes we are and sometimes easy to forget.
That is part of being conservative,we do disagree on things,the libs seldom do.
Close one! Glad you are safe and continue to play with your food. I enjoy watching the masters at work!
I am sure I will "talk" to you before your R&R, but in case I forget, have a great time with Wazoo 1031 and don't leave England the way you found her! ;*)
Okay, I am seriesly out the door to defend the VA War Memorial from the commies. Proceed...and have fun!
So you recognized my little pun then? It just wouldn't have worked if I had said we're all on the same side, left? Tee Hee...sorry, I'm in a weird mood, too...
I didn't say it wasn't happening - I said if the iraqis cannot close the loop - its not the fault of the US military.
I'm proud to know you. Make a Commie mad for me, OK? I love that you do this. It was just three years ago I was FReeping A.N.S.W.E.R. rallies - just as the war was about to begin.
Some of the most fun I've ever had....
Well...until now, of course. LOL
Must run in the family...HAHAHA
Then I'm going to study the insides of my eyelids for a while.
Come join us more often. We have fun!
Ma'Salaama! (Good night.)
LOL! I stand quietly with my sign and they go nuts screaming at me! It is really quite fun to watch. I usually crack and begin laughing hysterically! They just love that and go totally out of their minds. LOL!
A.N.S.W.E.R., Code Pinkos, The World Can't Wait.....what a buch of trash. Wish I could stuff them all in a dumpster.
I'll ping you to the AAR. (remind me if I forget)
Okay, I'm gone.................poof!
Sorry about taking so long to get back; I was shoveling snow and it sounds to me as though Allegra has responded for the WOT troops.
Now, you want to drag 'Nam into this again? Particularly the bit about: "He says it is like Vietnam in that we aren't fighting hard enough."
First, the libs and their pimps in the MSM have been trying to morph the WOT into "a Viet Nam morass" since two minutes after the first Tower went down. I still can't decide if they believe what they're saying or they've simply run out of pages in the playbook, and since 'Nam was their last visible "sucess", they just go back to 1968 as a last resort. I think that both Allegra and I were perfectly justified in slammin' the door shut on that score alone.
Second, and specifically WRT the "....not fighting hard enough"......well, this old Navy Chief would pretty cheerfully kick your civilian arse around the block for suggesting that of my brothers, but I'll stand 'way at the back of the long, long line of people who actually had time in-country and more personal reasons to point out your gross slander.
Finally, and in caps just so you can see:
IRAQ...IS...NOTHING...AT...ALL...LIKE...VIETNAM.
Got that?
I will state that with such emphasis for one primary reason: Lyndon Johnson is not George Bush. They both held the same office (POTUS) after holding elective office in the same state (Texas). Similarities pretty much end at that.
IMHO, LBJ tried to run Viet Nam like a political campaign, was finally forced to admit his own utter failure at the job, bugged out and let the MSM blame the military; BOTH Bush presidents got handed a bag of crap world situation, established a strategy to address it, turned the military
loose to make it happen and then did the President job of establishing and maintaining support for the troops.
The other big difference, if you haven't noticed, is that the MSM of 2006 is almost a flyspeck when compared to even a dozen years ago. They're still self-absorbed and self-important as ever, but they're running out of circulation and profitability almost faster than they've exhausted their credibility.
Instead of quoting more BS about 'Nam, can you tell me when you saw the last honest, objective, straight news story in the NY Times? On ANY subject?
Your synopsis is excellent. I am going to forward it to some friends whom seem to be easily fooled by our own media.
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