Powell: We Are Losing In Iraq

WFRV.COM ^ | 17 DECEMBER 2006 | AP

[SHOOT THE MOON bat]

UnAmerican...WTF, I have a nephew getting ready to go over there and a daughter heading to BMT in Feb. I really don't feel like seeing anything happen to them just to keep two kinds of Arabs from killing each other. Almost three thousand lives have been lost trying to do ALL that we can to reach stability. Sometimes people just don't want to be helped. We had to have our civil war and they will have to have theirs. If the Sunni's and the Shia's and the Arabs and the Persians wish to spend their national treasure killing each other on the sands of Iraq then that is what they will do and our best and brightest should not be sacrificed to stop it. Iraq is an important stratigic ground for us to hold just like Germany in the cold war but this is not a quick fix project, this is a project of a generation and if civil war needs to happen while we are there than so be it. I just don't think if it does we need to be considered the losers.

BTW I have been posting on this board for almost two years and my opinions have never been called UnAmerican. Grow up.

[OldFriend]

I just love that word 'advisers'. Same word used when we sent troops to Viet Nam.

Powell is and always was an opportunist. This time he is taking sides against his country.

Perhaps some nice peaceful African country would suit him better?

[John W]

I'm thinking the poster was referring to the subject of this thread and his words.

[EGPWS]

Perhaps some nice peaceful African country would suit him better?

Leaving just is never an option for the arm chair "servants" who disagree with real-time official doctrine.

[airborne]

Powell is auditioning for Hillary's VP spot.

He must be feeling threatened by Obama.

[jveritas]

"It is the D.C. police force that guards Washington, D.C., not the troops that are stationed at Fort Myer," Powell said. "And in Baghdad, you need a police force to do that, and in the other cities, you need a police force to do that, and not the American troops."

How stupid this man is? There are tens of thousands of heavily armed terrorists in Iraq and this moron want police to fight them.

[upchuck]

Since 2006-02-18?

[jveritas]

Not only that, but Gates came later on after the lunch break and corrected what he said in the hearings after he saw that the media went like crazy with this mischaracterized statement.

[OldFriend]

Backstabbers belong in the dem party. They're a perfect fit.

Can't wait for Rumsfeld's book.

[OldFriend]

Powell hasn't noticed how the hapless men who sign up for the police force are murdered on a daily basis.

Yet these brave Iraqi's continue to sign up in the hopes of making their country safe.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

BTW I have been posting on this board for almost two years and my opinions have never been called UnAmerican.

There are conservatives that have been here since 1999 that are being savaged by GOP party hacks. UnAmerican is the most polite term that they have used for anyone that dares to call this Iraqi nation building exercise for what it is. Powell has fallen from the GOP neoconservative graces. Wait until Secretary Rumsfeld's comments pervade the groupthink. The stark reality of choosing sides between the Saudi backed Sunni AQ murderers, or the Iranian/Syrian backed Shiite Hezbullah murderers is sinking in.

[Old_Mil]

For once, I agree with him. Numbers aren't going to help without a clearer vision and strategy..

- do we sit around turning the other cheek till they get tired of killing each other? or of killing us?

- do we pick a side and exterminate the other?

- do we back a dictator who will do so for us?

- do we carve up Iraq into three smaller states...a sunni nation that will become the puppet of Saudi, a shia nation that will become the puppet of Iran, and an independent Kurdistan where we base our troops? That's my favored approach.

[airborne]

BTW I have been posting on this board for almost two years and my opinions have never been called UnAmerican. Grow up.

BTW, we can all see you signed up on February 18,2006.

And we can access every post you ever made.

[Red in Philly]

I have as strong a military tradition in my family. I am just stating the mission goals as have been expressed by many including the US President. If we don not achieve them, we lose. Period. Did anyone think that creating a power vacuum that would lead to civil war and the empowerment of regional US enemies migh have been worse than any of Saddams offensive capabilities? Well that has turned out to be the case, so it is our responsibility to make this right. The US has a long tradition of pursuing stability and freedom, so leaving Iraq in civil war chaos IS unAmerican

[Old_Mil]

Even Prez Bush has said the goal is to make Iraq able to govern itself, defend itself and make it an ally against terror

My goal is to see Saudi Arabia convert to Christianity, die with more money than bill gates, and more playboy bunnies than Hugh Hefner.

Getting there is the issue.

[fragrant abuse]

Well said in both your posts.

[SHOOT THE MOON bat]

Sorry I meant one. Does it matter? I guess I was thinking about all the lurking time. But really, if I want to be called UnAmerican I could just go to DU. I really don't understand what is UnAmerican about what I said. If the Arab people chose violence and a civil war we are not the losers,they are. That was my point.

[fragrant abuse]

That's great that your daughter and nephew are serving. Good for them. I completely understand why you're worried, and you've every right and justification for that.

The problem the US/UK and our other allies have in Iraq is that our success will be only be achieved when we achieve our stated goal - stable democracy. That is the whole point of the mission.

If we withdraw without that, the rest of the world will see it as humiliating defeat. Iran and Syria will have been empowered, and a regional war may break out that will threaten our oil supplies, our influence over the region, our economy, and may ultimately necessitate us going back into the ME to fight a much larger and even bloodier war.

The stakes in Iraq couldn't really be any higher.

[SHOOT THE MOON bat]

If you check my post I did not say a word about leaving. My concern is for our soldiers patrolling streets and manning check points all for the purpose of keeping these people from killing each other. Did you ever go to a Flyers game and the refs keep getting in between 2 guys trying to fight each other and they spend the whole game trying to do it anyway. Sometimes its better if they fight and get it over with. We should stay and train and teach but we should not be told we are losing because the Arab people want to fight each other. Somethings are just inevitable. BTW why would we leave when there is still Al Queida to fight. That is the thing that is our mission. Killing Al Queida.

[FrankR]

"If Powell had kept his mouth shut when we had a half million troops in Iraq during Desert Storm, we wouldn't even be having this discussion right now. I think we've heard all we need to hear from Colin Powell."

If I remember correctly, all of the heavy lifting in Desert STorm was done by Cheney and Stormin' Norman...Powell hid under the table with Bernard Shaw until Saddam's finest started surrendering to CNN reporters.

Before the smoke cleared Powell was in front of every microphone he could find fluster-blustering like he was the reason we won.

Powell is one of two things I can't figure out...why HE was in the Bush cabinet...the other is why is Rivera on Fox news?

The critics are coming out of the woodworks now that they percieve the dems having "power".