Separating Personal Interest from the Public Good

[BT]

Plenty of Iraqi blood is already on your hands right now and you dont seem to mind at all.

I am not the one making a big deal about 600k Iraqi dead, and i am not advocating a policy that is sure to increase the death toll ten fold. That would be you and your handwringing ilk.

[Religious Dick]

The plug will be pulled eventually, but someone else will have to pull it.  Barring a complete collapse of the U.S. dollar (already in substantial decline) he should be able to continue to soldier on in Iraq at the expense of other men's lives and the taxpayer's fortunes, until the expiry of his term of office.

As long as we're there, we might as well hang around long enough to do some good. That is, I doubt we're ever going to do the Iraqis any good, but the situation might eventually do America some good.

Americans are getting pissed about the whole mess, but they aren't yet quite pissed enough to suit me. I propose to stay in Iraq until they are.

When I can stick my head out of my bedroom window and see a war-shill hanging from every streetlight, that will be time and enough to leave Iraq.

[Xavier_Onassis]

So there will be no blood on any of our hands.
 

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I disagree, many of the killing sprees in Iraq are staged for our edifacation.

Our reaction instructs our opposition .

It is a very interdependant and dynamic situation.
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Sure. Al Qaeda and the Baathist Party Resistance is checking this forum daily, just to see if they are winning out hearts and minds.

What exactly is "our opposition"?  Al Qaeda, which has zero chance of taking over Iraq? Saddam, who is in jail?  Are we supposed to choose an opposition from a list of candidates?  Muktada Al Sadr seems to me Newsweeks' choice. I tend to think of the thieves at Halliburton as sort of an opposition too.

I voted against every Bush that has ever come down the pike. I am not responsible. My vote has never decided any election or selection. I was not consulted about Iraq, nor will I ever be.

There is no blood on either of my hands.
 

[Lanya]

If Bush were taken out of the equation, things would be no different in Iraq.
So let's pretend he's out, and Cheney too, for that matter.

Still death squads killing 50-60 people a day, still insurgents killing our men.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/12/08/troop_levels/
Military readiness lowest since Vietnam War

Look ahead.  Our enemies certainly are.  We cannot afford to be bogged down in Iraq. 

Isn't this what we did to Russia?  We encouraged Afghanistan with arms, etc. to fight them, to weaken them? I'm sure our enemies love that we're over there bleeding out lives and money and equipment.  That can't continue. Period.

[Amianthus]

Isn't this what we did to Russia?  We encouraged Afghanistan with arms, etc. to fight them, to weaken them?

You don't see any differences between the Soviet coup in Afghanistan and our involvment in Iraq? We didn't sneak into Iraq dressed in Iraqi military uniforms, for starters. Also, when the Soviets pulled out, the country fell into a civil war. Do you think that pulling our troops from Iraq would prevent a civil war?

[Lanya]

I see many differences, but the similarites are what worry me.  No, I don't think pulling our troops out would prevent a civil war. They have that already. A failed state...it might precipitate that, or it might prevent that, or neither. I don't know.

I just know we cannot afford to be in that position.

[BT]

I just know we cannot afford to be in that position.

Why not?

[Lanya]

For the security of the nation.  For military readiness.   We have to build that back up.  We have to be able to defend ourselves if we're attacked.   

[BT]

For the security of the nation.  For military readiness.   We have to build that back up.  We have to be able to defend ourselves if we're attacked.   

What is stopping us from accomplishing that goal?

[Plane]

I agree that arming up a bit is a good idea.


May I suggest buying a brace of New C-130Js?

Converting a bunch of C-130H into AC-130 platforms ?

More surveilance satilites , A-10s , Coast guard cutters and submarines .

If we are3 going to defend ourselves passively we will need to become a very hard nut.

It will be a tad more expensive than nipping problems in the bud , but I am in that industry so I can be snaguine about it.

[Amianthus]

Converting a bunch of C-130H into AC-130 platforms ?

BTW, there is a show about the AC-130 on the Military Channel today.