Today marks the fifth year since the U.S. invaded Iraq. For his part Bush continued his habit of concocting ever-shifting premises to justify the invasion. Strangely, he didn’t mention the threat of WMD or links between Saddam Hussein and Al Quaida at all. He did admit that, “The battle in Iraq has been longer and harder and more costly than we anticipated†That admission leads me to ask, Who is this “we?†I think it was his decision supported by the predominately Republican congress and the dems who caved into political pressure. As for “cost” I suppose he means his loss of approval by the American people. It certainly cost him little to nothing personally. It’s not like his daughters volunteered to serve in this war that he believes in so vehemently.
It seems Bush has forgotten all about bin Laden. He didn’t mention him at all today. But he did say "The surge … has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror.†This signals the resumption of “war on terror†rhetoric which had lapsed into disuse around the time Rumsfeld resigned. Whatever that expression signifies to terrorists and the rest of the world, I can tell you it has come to evoke fear and loathing in this American citizen. Meanwhile the average Iraqi can anticipate that violence, political stalemate, a stagnant economy and humiliating foreign occupation will continue unabated at least until Bush leaves office and probably long after that, especially if McCain is elected.
And what would have happened had the coalition forces never arrived? Plenty of evidence to suggest the country was headed into this fullb lown civil war for a LONG time now. Its not a simple equation of bush walking in with soldiers and fucking up some society/civilization, it was approaching what has subsequently plauged iraq.
The same thing would have happened WITHOUT the coalition and maybe even worse.
Its a country with thousands of people, we can’t just abandon it to ‘failed-state-hood’ b ecause its a bloody, long, impossibly hard fight. Many of The American people have become cowards willing to sell out their own promises to factions in Iraq that have been promised help for decades now. They’d rather hide behind some bullshit stick-man arguement.
I don’t support Bush’s lying, flip-flopping or whatever else, but his RESOLVE to work in the middle-east is A GOOD thing.
No one knows what would have happened, but it would have happened without the deaths of American troops.
I never promised them anything. Did you?
Really? How much time has he spent “working” in the Middle East? Mainly I have seen him send other people to “work” there. It takes very little resolve to send others to do one’s dirty work.
He doesn’t have to pay attention to the polls. He has others like Karl Rove do it for him. They spoon feed it to him every morning being careful to sugarcoat it so that it is palatable for him. He’s comfortable and incurious inside the bubble. He has lived and will continue to live a consequence free life.
We can make VERY PROBABLE estimates though. IF there is massive evidence to suggest this civil war/state collapse was coming (and there is) we can make a VERY good estimate because its happen to other places before. We can make estimates based on the number of CASUALTIES right now.
The deeath of american troops is small in comparison to the number of deaths that would come out of iraq without the coalition. failed states can still house terrorist factions that can launch terrorist attacks and kill thousands of AMERICAN CIVILIANS.
It takes resolv e to stick to a wildly unpopular decision, it takes resolve to stick to a decision that’s employment was botched and when mistakes were made that costs lives, it takes resolve even to hold greedy/ambitious goals in the face of so many deaths.
That being said, I never promised them but plenty of elected officials/representatives have, people who the AMERICAN people put in power. You should be disgusted with your leaders for making promises to protect the civilians/secular factions and then leaving them to die. America’s grubby fingers is ALL OVER this mess, and as a nation theres some responsibility to fucking fix it.
Cyrene–Your arguments are highly speculative. Bush has not defined what success in Iraq would look like. What you call “resolve†I call a foolish, stubborn insistence on maintaining a failing policy indefinitely. McCain is “resolved†to carry on the Bush war for a hundred years.
Look at the facts and do a cost-benefit analysis. The invasion of Iraq was based on faulty premises and bad intelligence. The war in Iraq has lasted longer than World War II. It has cost circa 4 thousand American and more than 650,000 Iraqi lives. (See Nihilistic’s post above) In a best-case scenario it will cost American taxpayers well over a trillion dollars. It has damaged U.S. alliances around the world. It has tied up American military and financial resources thus limiting the US’s ability to act effectively in other domestic and world crises. There is no lever in the Bush-McCain policy for inducing the Iraqi government to take responsibility for their own future.
Here from barackobama.com is an alternative foreign policy for the U.S. for your consideration:
• End the war in Iraq, removing our troops at a pace of 1 to 2 combat brigades per month;
• Finally finish the fight against the Taliban, root out al Qaeda and invest in the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan, while making aid to the Pakistani government conditional;
• Act aggressively to stop nuclear proliferation and to secure all loose nuclear materials around the world;
• Double our foreign assistance to cut extreme poverty in half;
• Invest in a clean energy future to wean the U.S. off of foreign oil and to lead the world against the threat of global climate change;
• Rebuild our military capability by increasing the number of soldiers, marines, and special forces troops, and insist on adequate training and time off between deployments;
• Renew American diplomacy by talking to our adversaries as well as our friends; increasing the size of the Foreign Service and the Peace Corps; and creating an America’s Voice Corps.
