You are absolutely right. When we leave, Iraq and the world will be better off. Which is why leaving TOMORROW would be an excellent idea. Or, maybe you'd prefer to see a few thousand more Americans die before the stupidty of our aggression finally begins to dawn on the Bushes - father and son - who brought us this latest fiasco. What's the body count for a "conservative" like you to realize that we made a stupid mistake? 50,000, as in Vietnam?
We are there? No Arnie, these are the guys who are - were - there. Parts of them still are. http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/wounded/index.htm A conservative 200 years ago? He would have been in bed with King George. Just like he is today.
"Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen." -- Mort Sahl
The only relevant point is that Bush diverted limited resources away from following Al Qaeda, that attacked us, to launching an unprecedented pre-emptive attack on Iraq, that hadn't attacked us, wasn't linked to Al Qaeda, and posed no threat to us. By so doing Bush severely compromised the security of the USA while giving Al Qaeda a massive recruiting drive, using lies and deceit as his sole modus operandi. Not to mention the fact that our credibility is also destroyed world wide. Apart from strengthening Al Qaeda all Bush as achieved is undercutting the war on terrorism by refusing to accept the harsh reality that terror needs no state or institutions to thrive, all terror needs is a mind set. Bush has destroyed alliances and all US credibility needed for tackling the real threat, terrorism, and has, on top of that failure, set dangerous precedents in which other countries will build up their arsenals now and also feel emboldened to pre-emptively attack other states triggering wars we might otherwise have avoided, sadly, Bush is also eviscerating America's moral legitimacy. Quagmire in Iraq, sounds familiar. There are significant resemblances between Vietnam and Iraq, as well as major differences (no Soviet Union to constrain us). We entered both wars under more-or-less false pretenses. We now know that the Tonkin Gulf Resolution of August 1964, by which Congress played Pilate with the blood of millions, was a "fill-in-the-blanks" White House document, drafted months before. We now know that the second Tonkin Gulf incident, which LBJ used to justify the war and, en passant, neutralize Vietnam as a '64 campaign issue, never happened. And he knew it. (The American destroyers were tracking and firing on friendly commando boats, a fascinating tale in itself.) And once again, it appears, the troops don't matter. No draftee expendables this time around, but an equivalent lack of concern. Arbitrarily extended tours (especially for reservists), lack of proper support in the field, even the administration's shoddy attempt to cut combat, hardship and family separation pay (and billing wounded soldiers $8.10 a day for hospital meals). Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld can sing paeans to the troops every time they get behind a microphone. But they can't fool them. And there's a price to be paid for trying. If Bush isn't voted out the USA will be well on it's way of establishing a new evil empire. We face in Iraq, as we did in Vietnam, a classic guerrilla campaign. Four basic tactics. # Make us bleed. Attacks and casualties daily, plus occasional spectaculars. # Radicalize the population against us by forcing us to stern repressive measures and to make mistakes. # Kill and intimidate those who would work with us. # Destroy what we build; steal what we donate; use it against us. Foreigners streaming in by the thousands from safe havens beyond Iraq's borders: Jihadi, America-haters, rich, bored young men and poor, desperate young men. Compromising world peace and stability abroad, and creating a fascist totalitarian state of the unfree at home, where judicial due process and civil rights are rapidly turning into little more than fond memories. It's not a partisan issue, the problem are the current tiny minority of neoconservatives in the GOP, neoconservative is in effect just a euphemism for neofascist, in other words, Bush II and minority gang that have nothing in common with core Republican values, but that have nevertheless hijacked the Republican Party and Country, and are currently totally mismanaging things to the immense National Security detriment of the USA, not to mention shot national credibility etc. The neocon extremists that hijacked this country would have a hard time spelling National Security correctly, let alone have a clue about how to achieve it. High time to get rid of Bush !
How do you guys explain not finding Saddam Hussein and Bin Ladin? Did they not exist either? Guys Iraq is a big and finding WMD is very difficult. As far as the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, I disagree with using ground troops and risking US lives. I'm a big fan of carpet bombing. If it were up to me those two countries and maybe a few more would be vacant lots after 911.
I'm amazed no one has brought up the fact that after the first Gulf War that it took 3 years to find the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that was with the help of those in the know. I wouldn't be surprised if the WMD people are criticizing the president about showed up in the near distant future. A country doesn't just lay its WMD around for everyone to see.
The cost of this war in terms of soldiers is so low compared to Vietnam that there just isn't a comparison. You want us to pull out now so Iraq will return to anarchy and then you can say the war was wrong!! You screwed up idealogues with meritless arguments get disgustingly boring after awhile, you do realize that don't you??