[Teacher317]

"Winning a war" was not the intent or desire of those on that panel.

(Actually, we won the war quite some time ago... right now we're merely in the mop-up phase, and the mess is continually made worse by outsiders... and the nattering nabobs of negativity here continually point out what isn't clean yet, rather than noting the overall progress.)

[Alberta's Child]

The U.S. "lost" this war a long time ago when it made the decision to engage in a half-@ssed nation-building effort in which the best military force in the history of mankind was reduced to nothing more than a well-armed Peace Corps.

I don't understand why anyone is surprised over the recommendations of this panel. This panel simply recommended a bunch of things that this administration would have been forced to do anyway due to political realities.

[SMARTY]

That is the actual truth...we DID win and continue to win. The present violence is just a futile and gratuitous demonstration of their remaining power in the area by the punks who will be making trouble there or anywhere else they are permitted, no matter who takes charge of that country or when. They were there before and will be there when we leave. It was always Dodge City and it was only under control because Saddam the butcher had bigger and badder punks of his own to keep the lid on. These guys are just filling the power vacuum which was opened up when we removed Saddam from power. However, getting the flathead media types to admit it is not going to happen.

The orientals say that 'calling a thing by its right name is the beginning of wisdom'.