"The war is lost."

[Uben]

Is it really? I mean, we have allies helping us out, right? If this were not an honorable venture, we wouldn't have the support of countries like Japan and England. What? They are pulling all their troops out? Why?

I'll tell ya, the war is not only lost, it was never winnable. Instead of ousting Saddam and setting up a democracy in Iraq to spread throughout the region, we have lost the good will other arab nations extended after 9/11. The invasion of Iraq was the exact wrong thing to do, to put it bluntly. They are in full scale civil war, and the unrest will spread throughout the ME.

We have two options, the best I can tell. One, we stay the course and send another three to four hundred thousand troops to do the job. This will require reinstatement of the draft and hundreds of billions of dollars for equipment to supply the four-fold increase. It would take a full four years to implement, and would require a presence of no less than ten years in Iraq.

Two:Pull out! Let the region find a norm again. These people have survived for thousands of years. It is foolish to think they can find no peace on their own. There will be bloodshed, but there has been for thousands of years, as well. But, it will be their blood, not ours. Remember, America lost 600,000 men in our Civil War. It was brutally bloody! But. look at the result. We not only survived, we became the sole super-power and the envy of the world!

The risks are that we could lose access to the oil. I personally think this is very doubtful since the U.S. is the largest consumer of petroleum products, and the arabs will ahve to sell their oil because it is their biggest asset. Big whoop, we need to get away from fossil fuels anyway!

This war has divided our nation, alienated our allies, and left a generation of debt....for what? Revenge?

It's high time the one's responsible for this policy blunder to be held accountable for their
ineptitude. How can we earn the respect of the rest of the world if we do not remove the ones responsible? The current route aint workin folks!

I don't think a "war president" is what we need right now. What we need is a leader who can unite with our allies, discuss the ME region, and develop a plan to get them to work out their differences.

[Hissyspit]

1. The war was lost the second it was started.

Really, the second Shrub opened his mouth and formed the word "Iraq" in 2002 and connected it to 9/11.