Comments on: LOSING MOMENTUM IN IRAQ ISN’T THE PROBLEM

By: Bruce Manrose

Bruce Manrose — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 13:07:03 +0000

Great post!

Worse, having the Army there is a catalyst there for terrorists, and bringing them out of the woodwork. It’s creating new ones.
Going regional will only exacerbate this situation.

Note to Mark H: Did we do the right thing, for the right reasons (plural)? No, we did the wrong thing for the wrong reasons.
Maybe the intentions were good, but that’s not enough. It’s amazing how many Bushees are in denial and need a 12 step program, and fast.

By: Johnny Tremaine

Johnny Tremaine — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 01:06:45 +0000

Drewsmom,
Where in my post did I say that it was about oil? I challenge you to find the word ‘oil’ in my entire post. You’re even assuming I was against the initial war; I wasn’t. But the assumption that widening the conflict to the surrounding nations will improve the situation in Iraq is faulty logic.
Anyway, the argument is moot. Realpolitik is the order of the day, if Woodward’s latest book is to be believed. Apparently the Bush White House is now heavily consulting with Henry Kissinger and Co. on how to proceed in Iraq.

By: Rick Moran

Rick Moran — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 15:24:44 +0000

QM:

I generally agree that war critics demonstrate a lack of ideas for how to turn the situation around.

THe problem is that it is very possible that Iraq is not salvagable at this point. Partly due to our blunders but also a result of the history of the country and of the middle east. There literally is nothing we can do save keep training the Iraqi army and police while planning for a quick exit.

Hindsight suggests that there were errors made at the beginning that led us to this point. Certainly part of that was an inability by Rumsfeld, Cheney, and the President to recognize the nature of the insurgency and work in non military ways to confront it.

Too late now…

By: Quilly Mammoth

Quilly Mammoth — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 15:17:20 +0000

If history is our guide, and it should be, it isn’t remarkable that there comes a time when we look back at the campaign and see the errors and blunders made. It happens in every war, to every side. The winner is the one that can redirect the fight; the axiom that no plan survives contact being true.

But you can’t tell that to some people.

For example, The Belgravia Dispatches that you cite:

Just when you think your capacity to be surprised by some blunder or mishap committed by this Administration has reached some sad apex–so that your ability to get dumbfounded anew has just plain maxed out–you are left sadly awestruck by the sheer scale of the bollixing yet again. I’m reading Tom Rick’s “Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq” and stumbled across this gem about confusion…

Now this is a great example of war blockheadedness that I have recently read, and it emblematic of the problem with war critics of whatever stripe. They expected things to be perfect. Variations of Stoopid Chimpy McBusHitler that revel in ddeaspair on how screwed up things were…endlessly. And they provide little or no cognitive plan for making things better.

Far more points are scored by bashing the Administration than in actually recognizing that mistakes wre made, we can;t afford to lose, and we need to go forward. It’s called putting on the Big Boy Pants in dealing with reality. And few indeed are teh war critics who have them on. Instead, looking at history as my guide, I see the Athenians censuring yet another victorious general who didn’t win big enough or fast enough.

By: Drewsmom

Drewsmom — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 12:55:06 +0000

tremaine:
If this war was about oil we’d be awash with it and the prices would not have gone up …. get real ….. the left and the media are messing with Iraq like they did in Nam …. wake up, get your head outta the sand and smell the blood, our blood if we all don’t get a grip …… these guys are islamofacists who wanta get over here to kill us and dems and media are simply making it easier for em and IT DISGUSTS ME TO NO END.!!

By: Johnny Tremaine

Johnny Tremaine — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 18:48:00 +0000

Rick is right, to launch wars on Syria and Iran would require a large troop mobilization and larger expenditures, both of which are in short supply. The conceit that we could accomplish regime change in either country by just air power alone has been proven wrong, as shown this past Summer by the Israeli attempt to eliminate Hezbollah by, initially, only air strikes. Add to this the fact that President Bush has about two years left in office, and the chance for a wider war is unlikely.
Another thing, the problems in Iraq seem to be more than just Al-Qaeda terrorists and the militias. From reading today’s papers, the situation in Kirkuk is also deteriorating and a curfew established due to tit for tat private army attacks battling over who’s going to control the oil. Translation, we’re fighting multiple ‘wars’ in Iraq.
And can we please do away with the canard that the reason for our difficulty in Iraq is because of the Left and the media? If you seriously consider the media and the home front a larger enemy than the jihadis, then well, you’ve got personal issues that even Rick’s site can’t help you with.

By: Redhand

Redhand — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 13:37:47 +0000

The blind leading the blind is the way I see it.

The first blind one is Rumsfeld, who is congenitially incapable of listening to his military advisors when their opinions conflict with his entrenched, invariably wrong don’t-bother-me-with-the-facts opinions.

The second blind one is Bush, who for reasons of pathologically misplaced “loyalty,” or sheer dumb-as-nails stupidity, refuses to fire Rumsfeld. He has “confidence” in him, which is to say that Bush has abrogated his duty as Commander-in-Chief because he is clueless what to do.

I can’t say that I have a solution, at this late stage, but then again I didn’t get us into this mess. Rumsfeld was right about taking Bagdad with minimal forces when the war started, but he has been wrong about virtually everything else in this conflict since then. He should have been fired years ago. Now it may be too late.

By: Doug Ross @ Journal

Doug Ross @ Journal — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 13:35:35 +0000

Democrats and the strength of their convictions

“Congressman Rangel, if Democrats regain power in 2006, will you consider extending any of the President’s tax cuts?”

By: Drewsmom

Drewsmom — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 10:55:14 +0000

I’m just a dumb blonde middle age woman, but I think we are losing in Iraq…. we are losing cuz our guys have been caught there fighting a pc war against the dems and other countries, not against the terrorists… these two have made it very hard on us to kick the ass of the enemy in the right way.
I think its time for our guys to all come home, we need to regroup and defend our own borders in mexico and canada and our intelligence needs to get sharper than a major tac.
I think we outta sanction the hell outta Iran and it sounds like finally the other countries at least agree with that.
The Iraq people are gonna have to fight it out amoung each other, the recent poll there seems to show they want us gone, so be it, no more Americans to protect their whiney butts, we tried so let the nuts kill each other off. We do have ways to find out if there are training camps there and they start that up I say send a big ass bomb and destroy the friggin camps.
I love our troops and they did their best, they just could not beat the moonbat dems, human rights guys who wanna give the enemy more comfort than our guys, the aclu, I could go on and on, just think its time for ALL OF MILITARY TO COME HOME.
THEY FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT BUT NOBODY CAN FIGHT AGAINST THS MUCH HOME RESISTANCE.
MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON US ALL AND KEEP OUR COUNTRY SAFE.

By: Geek, Esq.

Geek, Esq. — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 23:25:47 +0000

Momentum? What does he think this is–a basketball game?

An unserious argument by unserious minds.