Newark Execution Murders

[Jester]

It struck me while reading this, that perhaps our military is really rather brilliant. The USSR went to Afghanistan and because it became a radicalizing lightening rod for Islam, thousands of Jihadist around the muslim world went there every year to become muhajadin warriors. Had the US done the same, what would have been different? So, could it be possible that the Iraq war was done intentionally to draw this same effect away from the bleak mountains and undefendable terrain of Afghanistan, into an area more able to be defended from endless insurgency. So, perhaps a strategy in taking on pan-Islamic jihadism is to attack them across the broadest front possible, thus preventing them to organize and mass their muhajadins in one place. Drawing it to Iraq also resolved the Saddam problem, and if things get out of control the failed state of Iraq is bounded by the strong military states of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey which would intervene to preserve their own national interests. Two of which are mostly with the US when it comes to military.

First off, you did go to war in Afghanistan, and still are at war there.

Second, if this was the strategy, it ain't working.

This has been true since the Aircraft Carrier "Mission Accomplished" press fiasco, where the intent of the victory message was for the crew of the carrier, not for the world.

The president flys his jet onto an aircraft carrier, and declares that major combat operations in Iraq are over, in front of a flag that says 'mission accomplished', and you're calling this a press fiasco? Gimme a break.

Congress and the President were given bad data equally, and they all jumped quickly into a war. Everyone is equally culpable for that, except the few who voted against it.

There is ample evidence that the President and his administration demanded data to support their war policy, and put strong pressure on the intelligence community to provide it. Accuracy bedamned, they wanted a war, and stopped at nothing until they got it. All parties were negligent in their dutes (and the Democrats were weasels, as usual, except for a noble few) but to equate the liars with the decieved is wrong.

I've used this analogy here before, but Iraq under Saddam was like a crack house which didn't happen to have any evidence in it at the time we kicked down the door. Do we regret kicking down the door, seizing the house, and trying to rehabilitate it?

If the polls are to be believed, yes.

So, what kind of fear are they mongering? Quagmire? Another Vietnam? Pan-Islamic Jihad? Nuclear terrorism? Losing the war? Or, as I've decried from day one, the parade of death. Any success is ignored, and it is so much more delicious to the press to have story after story on the latest victims of IEDs or suicide car bombs driven into crowded markets.

Aside from the eternal "we got rid of a vicious tyrant," what progress is there exactly? Violence has been consistently escalating, rebuilding has ground to a halt, and the old Iraq is flying apart into a sea of sectarian armies.

Does anyone think that pulling out would be a good idea?

I do. The majority of Americans do. The majority of Iraqis do. The majority of the world does. I think the question is "who's left that still doesn't?"

The US military is doing a great job considering the asymmetric difficulties they face, and they will win in Iraq and Afghanistan if the politicians will get out of their way and allow them to win. But, with a one sided story always pointing out the bleakest, worst, and darkest, it tends to sap everyones courage and morale, or worse, give rise to anger and radical retaliation to those attempting to do the right thing. The right thing in this case is the fend off a civil war, and external insurgency forces in Iraq long enough for them to create a central government powerful enough to defend themselves.

"We coulda won in 'nam 'cept for those damn hippies. Curse their flag-burning souls, sapping our morale!"

You're losing because you haven't got any way to win. The situation at home has almost nothing to do with it.

-Jester