Congress's Iraq Vets Helplessly Watch Their Gains Lost

National Journal ^ | June 13, 2014 | Clara Ritger

[Biggirl]

Americans are tired of war. For the 17 members of Congress who served in Iraq, that means watching helplessly as the cities they fought for fall once more to extremists. Militants believed to be associated with al-Qaida overtook Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, on Tuesday. The group then seized Tikrit, hometown of former President Saddam Hussein, on Wednesday.

[KC_Lion]

In WWII we didn’t fight to force Germany and Japan to negotiate, we fought to defeat and pacify them.

Correct, but recently I have been reading alot about the Rise of Communism in Eastern Europe, The United States Practically GAVE them everything EAST OF THE VISTULA RIVER~!!!!

And FDR seemed just fine with it.

Do you now who negotiated the Yalta Conference that absorbed much of the East into the USSR and made Poland a Communist State?

Alger Hiss.

We are lucky we aren't dealing with a North-Japan, South-Japan scenario.

U.S. Betrayal of it's Allies goes back a Long way.

[originalbuckeye]

I weep for this country. Even if we do take the Senate and then the Presidency in 2016, I fear it will be too late.

[Biggirl]

“I weep for this country. Even if we do take the Senate and then the Presidency in 2016, I fear it will be too late.”

I am very concerned that even with the taking of the Senate in 2014 and the White House in 2016, we are in for a long, long haul of rebuilding work to do.

[cripplecreek]

FDR was weak and Stalin knew it just like Obama is weak and Putin knows it.

Obama is worse because his weakness is intentional.

[airborne]

The second we took the control over our troops from the Generals and turned it over to the politicians we started losing.

And now we are where we are because of it.

[airborne]

And now we refuse to use our air superiority because we’re afraid of what our enemy will say.

[Alberta's Child]

The second we took the control over our troops from the Generals and turned it over to the politicians we started losing.

That happened when the U.S. Constitution was ratified back in the 1780s, so I don't buy that explanation at all. The idea of a large standing military conducting campaigns halfway around the world has no place in a nation of free citizens.

[DoodleDawg]

Iraq is turning into what Iraq was always going to be. The leadership of the U.S. has a lot to answer for, since the thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars was all for nothing.

So you're agreeing that there is nothing the U.S. could have done to prevent what's going on now?

[Alberta's Child]

The last time the Republican Party controlled the White House and both Houses of Congress we got a Medicare prescription drug entitlement, "No Child Left Behind" Federal education programs, the Patriot Act, and ethanol fuel mandates.

I wouldn't hold out any hope for the 2014 and 2016 elections, if I were you.

[Alberta's Child]

Short of bombing the entire country into a smoking ruins, yes.

[Alberta's Child]

History is littered with proof that you can’t simply draw lines on a map across tribal boundaries and expect it to work.

[reefdiver]

My wish is that zer0 watches helplessly as his health care is disassembled

[airborne]

You don’t think the “rules of engagement” the politicians have forced on the commanders in the field have any bearing on success or failure?

[Biggirl]

While I am very happy about the recent Virigina shocking primary win of Dave Brat, we are in for a long, long, war in taking this country back.

[ThePatriotsFlag]

Liberalism fail.

[DoodleDawg]

History is littered with proof that you can’t simply draw lines on a map across tribal boundaries and expect it to work.

Especially in that region of the world.

[sr4402]

al-Qaeda can operate freely in Pakistan because the U.S. won’t ‘eff with a country that already has its own nuclear arsenal.

What about the predator drone strikes against Al-Qaeda in Pakistan?

[Alberta's Child]

You don’t think the “rules of engagement” the politicians have forced on the commanders in the field have any bearing on success or failure?

No. The real problem started before any U.S. military personnel were even on the ground over there. What exactly constitutes "success" or "failure" in a military campaign that is described as something so nebulous and idiotic as a "War on Terror?"

[Alberta's Child]

I’m referring to al-Qaeda sympathizers in the highest reaches of the Pakistani government.

[airborne]

“War on Terror” . . . .

A catchy phrase dreamed up by some politician.

You’re kind of making my point for me.