Hawk, even it control of oil and all that would entail were a goal of "worldwide Jihadi," it is folly to fight this war this way to prevent it. Our actions over the past year--and especially over the past month--threaten to destabilize the entire region. Anti-US sentiment is being fueled by the missteps in Iraq.
And your solution is?
We need to put a lot more boots on the ground, at least two more heavy divisions.
Kind of late now, don't you think? After all, you think we shouldn't have been there to begin with..
So why commit more resources to a losing battle, right?
Do you know how many tanks we have in Iraq right now?
70.
Yes, I do.. And if you recall, I mentioned that this was a mistake.. But logistically speaking it was understandable because 1st Cav is not trained to operate with the previous version of the digital tactical control technology.
One of my friends was involved in the ramp-up and training for that system. This is what he explained to me..
Which is why the Pentagon is apparently flying in M-1s to augment the existing forces.
We also need to punish, not reprimand, US persons responsible for human rights abuses.
Of course we have to.. But we also have to follow the legal process, including evidence collection, further discovery, and then trial. Listen.. I want all of these folks who were involved in those abuses tried, and if guilty, convicted. I want their supervisors tried as well...
But that apparently isn't going to matter, now is it?
Bottom line h0db, if we pull out of Iraq now, I'm afraid my nightmare is going to come through. Islamic militancy will sweep through the region and we're going to back fighting this battle in a an even larger manner in years to come.
That is, if one of them doesn't manage to launch a successful NBC style terrorist attack against this country..
But they are going to start with their own corrupt regimes first.
If you are right, and the stakes are as high as you think, we have got to stop half-assing this. Otherwise, we are on track to a confrontation with the real armed insurgency, the Badr army controlled by the dominant Shi'ia in the south.
Kind of late to be advocating such a policy now, isn't it? The fact that folks have been nit-picking our efforts to rebuild Iraq ever since the fall of Saddam, and certainly how the UN scooted out of the country after they foolishly permitted themselves to be attacked, didn't help..
Hey.. the world wants the US to tuck tail and run.. We'll maybe that's what it's going to take, with the consequent repercussions to follow, to get the world to understand the threat that Islamism poses to the region, and to the world.
Unless something dramatic happens to the opposite, such as the UN taking some kind of drastic action to put Iraq under trusteeship, as well as mandating an emergency in the region, then it's pretty well destined that momentum in the Arab media will increase the influence of the Islamists.
So the world has taken us for granted, corrupted the UN as an organization of international peace and security, and now they are willing to see the US, as an entire nation, hang because they wanted to line their pockets with Saddam and the oil for food program, maybe we should just let the chips fall where they may..
It will certainly be politically "cleaner" if we just let the Islamists take charge in the region, and then get to the point where we are forced to mobilize the national might in a manner we haven't seen since WWII, and then wage total war.. civilian casualities be damned.
If we so "evil", I guess we can leave the Arabs to their own devices, expedite energy self-sufficiency via hydrogen and nuclear power, and let the rest of the world deal with OPEC.
I really am feeling a bit down right now.. And I hope those soldiers who committed those abuses understand the burden they have off-loaded onto future generations.
Hawk |
