What does ‘winning in Iraq’ actually mean?
When we fought the Second World War, winning was clearly defined (unconditional surrender of the Nazi Regime and the Tojo Regime).
We have the same problem in Iraq that we had in Vietnam - fuzzily defined objectives in a War of choice. We never fully outlined what ‘winning in Vietnam’ meant. We used metrics such as ‘number of enemies killed’ etc.
FDR had his fireside chats where he explained to the American people what exactly was being done. Churchill explained why the war had to be fought.
There has been a failure of communication, competence and imagination by this adminstration. How do we explain to the American people that five years of American occupation have tipped the strategic balance in favour of the Iranians? How do we explain to the American people that while senior American politicians sneak into Iraq unannounced, Ahmadinejad visits Iraq with full fanfare?
How do we explain to the American people that American blood has been shed to support a constitution that blatantly supports Islam as the source of law, that discriminates against Iraqi christians and Iraqi women? How do we explain to them that the ruling party in Iraq are allies of the Iranian regime?
Yes Saddam is gone, good. But did we bite off more than we could chew?
Now those who imagine that we will stay in Iraq the same way we stayed in Korea and Japan - forget it. Arabs are neither Koreans nor Japanese. Arabs do not like to be occupied by anyone for an extended period of time (just ask the Israelis).
We need to find a way to resolve this situation, quickly (use proxies if necessary) and get the hell out. Arabia is a ‘tar baby’.
Damn good question there.
Quick retreat or "cut and run" means victory to Islamic radical jihadists and would only re-energize their recruitment.
Liberals are still proud of themselves after the Vietnam war for bringing big bad America down to our knees via their power in the press and college campus. Its ashame they are still in denial and unwilling to admit that 4 million people were murdered in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia when we left.
Liberals and Democrats act impulsively because they are ruled by their emotion and are incapable of logic. Everything is "ends justify the means" (Socialism)
Its pathetic that we have a Republican Senator that also thinks in a similar fashion