I understand your main point but there is no playbook here to work from. Monday morning QB'ing Bush and Rumsfeld is the poor man's way of saying they wouldn't have done anything themselves. Rumsfeld has said many times that the enemy has a brain and will the adapt and change their tactics.....yes they will. As long as they have a brain. Mistakes were made and will continue to be made no matter what the choices. Mistakes were made in sitting and doing nothing while N. Korea broke every treaty they ever signed also. You know how many mistakes were made in WWII? How many were made in the Civil War? Thousands. But without the will and fortitude to forge ahead and complete the job, a much larger mistake will and would have been made.
The Japanese decided they wanted Democracy for themselves after the war. They cooperated and took it upon themselves to build a nation, exactly what the Iraqis are not doing.
Yeah they all beleived faulty intellegence instead of the weopons inspectors who were on the ground and said WMDs didn't exist. Special forces and air power are smart. Occupations are stupid. Liberal congress?? I said that Iran and North Korea were threats. I said Iraq never was. South Korea is our friend. They built my TV. I don't know what moveon.org is. I said we ignored the threats in Iran and N. Korea. We should have dealt with them. Instead Bush gave them a pass. He also gave Somalia, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia a pass. I don't see how building a nation in Iraq helps us take care of other crazies.
We have the ability to go in and eliminate threats and not get involved in reconstruction. It is a waste of time and resources to occuoy and protect our enemies.
You didn't answer anything I said. So bombing Iran or invading Iran with special forces is just a little slip in-slip out deal huh? Or N. Korea? Yeah, it's easy to talk about how smart it is from a guy on a message board but that is starting a war. Whatever. Special forces would have worked great to stop Hitler too.
You have been brainwashed. The truth is we do not need anything from any other countries to continue our way of life. And we do not need other countries to be democratic to continue our way of life. Imagine for a moment that we stopped trying to police the rest of the world. The amount of unused resources we would all of the sudden find ourselves with would be enough to end poverty in our country, eliminate the so called national debt, and grow even stronger. Now for the spread of democracy. Who cares? Why does it really matter to us if other countries have a democratic government? It doesn't. We are just judgemental people that seem to think forcing our beliefs on others is our right. Like Red says, let the fantics kill each other. If we get out of their counties and stop forcing our beliefs on them they have no reason to hate us. And even if they still hate us, our military will be stronger at home so we can keep them out of our borders. No other counrty is a real threat to us. At least not according to our military officials who say we could shoot down an incoming missle within 3 minutes of launch. So we bring all of our troops home. Our defense would be stronger and our costs would go down. You and I may no longer have to give uncle sam 45% of our paychecks. More money in our pockets would stimulate our economy to a point where the lower class would still be living a pretty decent lifestyle. The other countries would still buy our products. They have no choice. We do. We do not really need the oil. We have plenty of our own, and even if we used it all we are smart enough to, (already have) come up with alternative fuels that are cheaper and more effiecient. This can only happen when everyone decides that it would be a good idea to elect officials that will worry about our home land instead of foreign countries and what they are doing.
you are acting like terrorism doesnt exist. sure, we can continue our lives without doing anything, if we are willing to deal with the occasional massacre. i dont like massacres. at least not of americans. if there is one thing the government should be spending our money on, it is killing our enemies. this was a plan i would have agreed with 30 years ago. it is too late for this. we are knee-deep in trouble and the only way out is to be aggressive. sorta true, but beside the point. although a country that encourages terrorism is definitely a threat to us. saddam paid suicide bomber's familes. i dunno if that is true. missile defense is something i think the public is largely misinformed about. not that i think any other nation would ever fire a missile at us. unless they want to be completely vaporized, i dont see anyone trying anything. i dont think this war is about oil, not at all. i think foreign relations at least as important as most domestic issues.
The Japanese wanted democracy and they cooperated with us to achieve it. Not one US serviceman was killed by insurgents in the occupation of Japan. Japan's revolution was abandoning the Imperial system for a democracy. The Emperor became a figurehead.
Not so sure this is true, according to Red we need oil because we don't have enough in our country, global economy of today. I wish we could do this but I think its wishful thinking only besides no president or party would back this or try it. The problem with this is most countries who aren't democratic clearly violate human rights and try and take over the world, power, etc. Putin from Russia according to Dick Morris which I'll get into later when i have more time Some questions come to mind. Where we in their countries during the Clinton years and did they still attack us, this kind of thinking is part of the very problem we have in this country. OBL said that we fled from Somolia which made us a paper tiger and thats one reason they came after us. Also are you just going to ignore these fanatics and countries that could develop nuclear weapons and then use them against us or our allies or sell them to terrorists. Quite the same thing people have argued about other certain countries. Maybe I'm missing something? This kind of thinking is just scary. Iran and other countries are a threat. We have missiles to shoot things down but we have to be right 100% of the time and they have to be right just once. Hmm, I only wish this would work but no way
You miss the point, of course. 1. The fight against Al Qaida and terrorist groups is the Special Operations Forces and covert operations battle. Iran will not be a SOF batle, it will be a naval and airpower war. 2. Conventional heavy ground forces must be saved and made available for conventional heavy ground wars, like we may be facing in Korea. 3. Airpower is a part of every US military mission--overt and covert, heavy or light. For some missions it is best used alone. Nobody can match the US in airpower or naval power. Few can match the US in a conventional heavy ground war. Practically anybody can match the US in a guerrilla war on their own turf. Pancho Villa did, the Phillipine insurrectionists did (for decades), The Vietnamese did, the Somalis did, and now the Iraqi are doing so. The American way of war is short, technologically advanced, and violent with heavy use of airpower and naval forces and careful use of overwhelming ground forces. These are smart wars. We win these kinds of wars and always will. Getting involved in foreign guerrilla wars with a too-small army, separating factions who hate each other and us as well, and heavily dependent on undependable allies to succeed has always been a recipe for disaster. These are stupid wars and they are unwinnable. What supafan is saying is that we are currently misusing the tools at our disposal. I agree and I believe: 1. The heavy military forces in Iraq need to be gearing up for dangerous potential conflicts with Iran and North Korea. 2. The Special Operations Forces need to be concentrated on the terrorism fight in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 3. Iraq is an internal political problem right now and is no military or terror threat to us. We must spend far fewer US lives and $billions there. Replace the warriors with diplomats.
