Great Idea re Voting to Stay in Iraq

[toasty]

I don't think any Congressman should be able to vote to continue this war unless they can take an unprotected walk in Baghdad for fifteen minutes. Put the voting booth in the middle of Baghdad, give them some purple ink and any Congressman who can make it to the voting area without a military escort and vote yes to continue the war should have their vote counted.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/your-chance-of-being-kidn_b_63613.html

It would be funny if it weren't so tragically accurate.

This was part of a larger article on how Newsweek's Baghdad correspondent indicated that a Westerner walking around Baghdad unprotected would be "suicidal" and that the chances of you being kidnapped or killed was "100%."

Geez, what was it like before we were making all this progress?

[KinKyJ]

Re: Great Idea re Voting to Stay in Iraq

A country without Al Quaida cells. That's a hard muthafuggin fact o' life.

[superdave]

Re: Great Idea re Voting to Stay in Iraq

No denying there is progress in Iraq. Ignore both Republicans and Democrats and listen to the military and people that are career officials that don't have to get re-elected. Republicans try to look like tough, kick ass leaders to their war mongering base. And the Democrats not even secretly want our soldiers to die and the Iraq war fail. Not all Dems and Republicans btw.

It's a tough call whether to leave or not. Things are better in Iraq and troop withdrawl starts next year, so maybe it's best to see this through. Or the small progress made could be literally blown away in the coming months.

Btw, that moveon.org ad against the General was out of line. Things like that cause independents and the center to vote Republican. Disrespecting the military like that is horrible.

[toasty]

Re: Great Idea re Voting to Stay in Iraq

Btw, that moveon.org ad against the General was out of line.

Agreed on that point. Totally unnecessary.

No denying there is progress in Iraq.

Well, that's true, but there is significant blurring about the "why" of that progress. There's all this discussion of whether or not the "surge" is working, and there is also talk about all the progress in the Anbar province, where Sunnis are now fighting against Al Qaeda forces. The conclusion Bush and the advocates of the war hope you'll draw is that the two are connected.

The reality, however, is that the change in the Anbar province began pre-surge and was a result of our troops taking a step back and giving the Sunnis some ownership of their own region. Once it was apparent to the Sunnis that they were fighting for their own territory, they wanted to oust the Al Qaeda forces from it, too. It was not the presence of more troops in Anbar that did the trick, it was actually having less troops in that particular region, with US troops playing more of a supporting role. Accordingly, not only does the progress in Anbar not support the argument for preserving the surge, it actually supports the opposite strategy.

It is important to remember, though, that Sunnis are not fighting Al Qaeda because they want Al Qaeda out of Iraq. They are fighting Al Qaeda because they want Al Qaeda out of Anbar, a Sunni-controlled region of The Region Formally Known As Iraq. There is no Iraq, there is just a region with three autonomous factions. Partitioning the country into regions that these groups give a rip about and are willing to fight for is the only way we're ever going to see an end to this conflict. Maybe you have a loose, centralized government to handle things of mutual concern (read: oil profits), but continuing to pretend that "success" is with them living together in one happy country is one of the major sources of the problem, IMO.

[Huggie Smiles]

Re: Great Idea re Voting to Stay in Iraq

When the troops leave Iraq - will the US government hold up a Mission Failed sign?

[KinKyJ]

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[KinKyJ]

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[KinKyJ]

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[KinKyJ]

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[KinKyJ]

Re: Great Idea re Voting to Stay in Iraq

[KinKyJ]

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[KinKyJ]

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[KinKyJ]

Re: Great Idea re Voting to Stay in Iraq

Ow fuck, wrong thread

[AntonyM]

Re: Great Idea re Voting to Stay in Iraq

Great way to turn this discussion
in the wrong direction. The US Govt is gonna ride this Iraq situation out
through the 2008 elections. It is too big of a political weapon to ignore
and a great to entice or let say manipulate votes out of the few americans
who still care to vote.