My head just exploded.
Go back to DU.
Yes we probably can,let me give you two options.
1)We surrender and go home,leaving the Middle East to evolve in whatever way other external forces wish to push it.
2)We blow the whole place to hell,and have to deal with a world which the Chicoms or North Koreans are willing to supply the islamofascist world not located in the Mid East the weapons necessary to balance the scale.
Pick one or provide details on any other alternatives.
You don't know what you're talking about.
Not even close.
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.
Do you consider the enemy blowing up women and children in the market as "winning"? Do you see evidence that 25 million Iraqis agree with this kind of "winning"? Are they siding up with this kind of "winning"?
Stop sounding like a Liberal Chicken Little. "It's Vietnam! It's Vietnam!" So far with less losses in 3 years then what we lost in 2 hours of 9/11, this war will go down as one of the greatest successes in comparison with the other wars we have had ground troups fighting in the same amount of time!
We have done this successfully before. We did it in El Salvador. I suggest the Armchair Generals shut up on a topic they CLEARLY know nothing about. HERE is what we are doing in Iraq.
For the Neo-isolationists, HERE is what we are up to in Iraq.
Counter Insurgency is a strange bastard style of war. It is not total war but it is also more then the Leftist" Police matter". The other thing most old Cast Iron Conservatives forget is the political aspect. Iraq was doable. We had the political consensus to do it. So since we needed a kill zone we could suck the terrorists into and we needed to get the American people to support the cost, there was no other choice BUT Iraq.
Want to really blow the Leftists minds? Tell them this. Even if Al Gore won in 2000 and 9-11 happened the USA would STILL be doing the same thing now in Iraq. Iraq was doable militarily and politically. There was no other place for the US to go. Iraq is basically the same deal as the invasions of Italy was in 1943
Here in a nutshell, is the MILTIARY reason for Iraq. The War on Terrorism is different sort of war. In the war on Terrorism, we have a hidden foe, spread out across a geographically diverse area, with covert sources of supply. Since we cannot go everywhere they hide out, in fact often cannot even locate them until the engage us, we need to draw them out of hiding into a kill zone. Iraq is that kill zone. That is the true brilliance of the Iraq strategy. We draw the terrorists out of their world wide hiding places onto a battlefield they have to fight on for political reasons (The "Holy" soil of the Arabian peninsula) where they have to pit their weakest ability (Conventional Military combat power) against our greatest strength (ability to call down unbelievable amounts of firepower) where they will primarily have to fight other forces (the Iraqi Security forces) in a battlefield that is hostile to guerrilla warfare. (Iraqi-mostly open terrain as opposed to guerrilla friendly areas like the mountains of Afghanistan or the jungles of SE Asia).
There are other reasons to do Iraq but that is the MILITARY reason we are in Iraq. We have taken, an maintain the initiative from the Terrorists. They are playing OUR game on ground of OUR choosing.
Problem is Counter Insurgency is SLOW and painful. Often a case of 3 steps forward, two steps back. I often worry that the American people have neither the maturity, nor the intellect" to understand. It's so much easier to spew made for TV slogans like "No Blood for Oil" or "We support the Troops, bring them home" then to actually THINK. Problem is these people have NO desire to co-exist with us. They see all this PC posturing by the Hysteric Left as a sign that we are weak. Since they want us dead, weakness encourages them. They think their "god" will bless them for killing Westerners.
So we can covert to Islam, die or kill them. Iraq is about killing enough of them to make the rest realize we are serious. See in the Arab world the USA is considered a big wimp. We have run away so many times. Lebanon, the Kurds, the Iraqis in 1991, the Iranians, Somalia, Clinton all thru the 1990s etc etc etc. The Jihadists think we will run again. In fact they are counting on it. That way they can run around screaming "We beat the American just like the Russians, come join us in Jihad" and recruit the next round of "holy warriors". Iraq is also a show place where we show the Muslim world that there are a lines they cannot cross. On 9-11 they crossed that line and we can, and will, destroy them for it.
"It is Vietnam all over again."
Yes, we are winning militarily, and are succeeding, but the defeatist Democrats and MSM want us to lose at home what we are winning on the battlefield.
Just like Vietnam.
"We could end this war any day we wanted, just as we could have ended Vietnam any day we wanted."
Idiotic statement. Anyone who knows counterinsurgency knows these things take *time* ... nevertheless the chance of the insurgents winning is approximately .... 0% , IF WE STAY THE COURSE. I honestly believe that we are taking higher casualties SOLELY BECAUSE THE MEDIA IS KEEPING HOPE ALIVE FOR THE TERRORISTS.
If we had a more anti-terrorist media, IT WOULD BE OVER BY NOW.
"Good American men are dying in the 1000's because we are afraid of killing civilians and worried what the world thinks of us."
Our military leaders would strongly disagree with this. Further, it is exactly those civilian casualties that we do inflict (see headlines even today, we had a raid that killed some Iraqi civilians, every time this happens, the media trumpets it, and it makes us look bad) that give the terrorists the PR boosts they need ...
Solution? Simple - Iraqi Army will be doing more and more of the fighting. I know, the media will lie and call it a 'civil war' now, Iraqi Government fighting terrorists.
Never mind that, the key is to realize that war is hell, and the insurgents are the ones asking for it.