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 ...
She has a pretty good idea of what is going on there and the practical realities of the place.
It is a long overdue social readjustment. Saddam had kept the screws down tight on a lot of conflicts in Iraq, and now that the people are free they're doing what they've wanted to do for some time - protect their local interests. Calling it a 'civil war' is not reasonable, calling it 'ethnic or religious tensions' is.
EXACTLY!!He told us that"The War Against Terror"would be a protracted situation!!The Iraq war is just one theater of operations in this global conflict!!!We have become to"Instanticized"in this country!!!I freely accuse The DemonRats of TREASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You don't know what you're talking about.
War" movies "are usually over within two-hours.Is this the premise being applied to The War On Terror by The DemonRats?
Not even close.
I don't remember Bush ever promising that the U.S. could quickly win the war. In fact I remember him saying the opposite. This reporter has his facts wrong.
The President NEVER said it was going to be quick; he was adamant that it would take a long time because it was such an entrenched problem.
What you are doing there means a great deal,and wouldn`t want to imply anything otherwise.
Apologies to you.
I keyed on the same sentence. The foundation for this clown's article is faulty. Ergo, the entire argument is invalid.
Yep. I've even eaten at the one at Camp Taji a few times. And the one in the Green Zone. The shirts are very hard to get. After months of begging, I did get one from here:
-- This reporter has his facts wrong. --
But he has his propaganda right...
It's my third favorite gift. The second is a flag that was flown in Baghdad over a main base there.
The first and favorite is that he's finally back.
Have you asked any of the soldiers who remain if they think we should conduct the war in such a way as to harm innocent civilians? I guarantee you that most would say not only NO but HELL NO! They are professionals, they don't make war on women, children, and non-combatant men. They respect life, but know that some times, they have to take the lives of those who would kill them or kill innocents.
I Thank God every day that we live in a country that DOES respect life. Otherwise, we'd be no different than the animals who blow civilians up with their IEDs and explosive vests every day.
"We aren't fighting hard enough" is a line of propaganda targeted not for the DU types but for us.
Don't buy into it.
I run into these sanctimonious types from time to time. People who feel like they need to go around telling everyone how to act.
I just laugh at 'em.
And push their arrogant little buttons if I'm so inclined...
Very cool t you got there btw.......
Their hearing is fine, it's their agenda that's lacking.
They don't "listen" to any one. They pull their stories from dark places that civilized people don't discuss.
I believe those are the most profound words this President has ever spoken.
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