An insider's view of IraqFollow

Sounds like a hell of a lot of firepower for the task of rebuilding a country, now that we are a couple o' years past the great 'mision accomplished' statement.
Spreading democracy and freedom from the barrel of a gun! what a bunch of ********

Edited, Tue Nov 15 04:20:52 2005 by paulsol

I think the general plan is to have Iraq rebuild itself. Much less costly this way(to America). A democratic president will push for this. Also, major coporations(not just oil companies mind you) have already expressed a urge to develope in a democratic Iraq.

In business location is everything and Iraq just happens to be in the smack dab middle of a war. War, history will teach you, is good for business. Not only is it in the middle of all that, but it is pretty much in the middle of Asia and Africa. The transportation industries stand to make a ton of money. As with communications, and oil industries severally. Most business look at a democratic Iraq as a huge cash register waiting to be cashed out.

Which won't be far from the truth, as soon as the dust settles from all of this there will be a permanent military base or two there, I guarentee it. Military Base = lots of money spent. If this becomes a success(which I believe it inexorably will) Iraq will be quite the economic monster.

Another beauty of a democratic Iraq would be a military staging point for futher action against Iran and Syria. This is the MAIN reason these two countries aid insurgents as they do. They simply do not want American Militay Might on their front porches or backyards. I believe this operation is going much better than what the popular media would have everyone to believe.

If the next president of the US of A is democratic I fear that not enough will be done to resolve this quickly(thus more lives lost), but on the other hand I think another republican will push too hard(more lives lost and more tax dollars spent), and possibly prematurely start a campaign on either Syria or Iran.

Sounds like this guy is talking to the press and not his dad, haha. I read this to my husband and he found it quite humerous.

Simply beyond not true.

Not that I am questioning its authenticity, despite the fact that it was posted on another internet forum by a guy who talked to another guy about a conversation with a son that served in Iraq.

However the US military has been busted a number of times of putting out ***** propaganda with soldiers names attached to it without the soldiers actually knowing about it.

Case in point when it turned out that a couple of letters home from troops saying how they loved the fight, that they were doing good and other media friendly tid bits such as that ended up getting published in the local news papers and then someone noticed that a number of families had recieved the exact same letter word for word with just a different name. When the families found out and contacted their family serving in Iraq they were unaware of the letter and it turned out it was just the US military sending it out with the persons name on it without their knowledge as a propaganda tool

Link

Oh snap, I did end up questioning your Katie~esque piece of forwarded fact.

Edit-Who am I kidding, it was an interesting read I just need to be the annoying limp wristed liberal.

Edited, Tue Nov 15 09:42:45 2005 by bodhisattva

I don't think anyone has doubted that we're inflicting much higher casualties on them than they are on us. The same was true for Vietnam, which is why a lot of the troops there were aghast at being sent home, in the end.

It's the same question, though: is it a winnable war? Like he said, they're getting recruits from all over the Middle East and Europe. I wouldn't be surprised if they're recruiting in Asia as well - Pakistan, Indonesia, etc.

It's encouraging to know that the Iraqis are better motivated and have been politicized to our side, to some extent. However, I can't help but wonder how far that will take us. We're the *visible* invaders. Their guys, Chechens aside, blend in somewhat better.

Interesting, about the Iranian infiltration. It makes a lot of sense, of course.

Not at all surprised about the Kurds. They have more reasons than most to want this effort to succeed.

I agree! The liberal media has painted a very different picture of the Barrett .50cal sniper rifle and M24. Very different indeeeed...

I've never seen "stop using guns in wars" on any gun control agenda list, but I might be missing out

US Army, Fisticuffs Division, reporting for duty, SIR!

We're moving you to Pugilism, private!

the only way to win a war is to End it.




anywho, my *****-size has increased after reading this thread.

Boxer, while the jury is still out deliberating on the final results of what we are doing over there, I believe the answer to "winning" the war in Iraq is doing precisely what we are pushing for: Setting up a stable government that responsive to it's citizens. We have already seen massive support for the elective process (remember the purple dyed thumbs anyone?) and a willingness of the dominant religious sect to forgive the minoriy's past offenses and let them co-exist and share in governing.

Let's face it, it's not the average Iraqi who is out there blowing stuff up and engaging in a guerilla war, it's all the other Muslims who have a beef with the West who are coming over the borders and killing Iraqis wholesale. Yes, there are Saddam loyalists and Baathists fighting, but for the most part they are a negligable part of this conflict, since the locals can identify them-- or in the case of Tikrit, shelter them.

But the key to removing ourselves permanently from that country is to have a stable government in office. And at it's core, that is precisely why we went in there in the first place: Hussein's aggressive and erratic dictatorship was a destabilizing influence in a critical part of the world. Unlike say, Qadaffi, who demonstated a willingness to mend his ways (regardless of it's authenticity) Hussein would not make even the smallest of gestures to assure his neighbors that he was not a threat, therefore he was removed.

Totem