One huge difference here. Russians weren't strapping bombs onto the children to run onto a bus and blow it up. In order for your plan to work, negotiations, diplomacy, has to be conducted with rational, reasonable people on the otherside of the table that fear death as much as you. If they do not, you have no leverage....indeed the leverage is in their favor. The Russians may have been lying bastards, but they weren't so crazy as to put bombs on kids to kill 15 people. In the end, the only way to end this for good is to kill the other people. Take Israel for example. They have negotiated their way into having their homes hit by rockets and cafes blown up daily. Again, the sooner we realize that this isn't Russia we're dealing with here the better off we'll be. Sanctions and diplomacy won't end this.
Neither were the Iraqis. Endlessly patrolling a bitterly hostile country and babysitting their civil war won't end this either.
It's not a civil war, but it is a conflict that we are largely not a part of (or atleast wouldn't be if we were not there).
Most disagree, sir. Head of U.S. command: Iraq civil war possible Allawi: this is the start of civil war Iraq civil war warning for Blair So what's our role in Iraq's civil war? Failed American policies [in Vietnam] rise from the grave in Iraq CIA Officers Warn of Iraq Civil War, Contradicting Bush's Optimism Majority in U.S. Fears Iraq Civil War civil war noun 1. A war between factions or regions of the same country. 2. A state of hostility or conflict between elements within an organization:
A civil war being possible is not the same as a civil war being presently fought. I'm sure all of you libs would love nothing more than to see iraq spiral out of control due to civil war. Hopefully, our boys can keep that from taking place.
Don't know. There are a lot of variables involved. I do know, however, that it is in our best interest to do everything in our power in order to keep one from happening. Do you disagree?
I agree that we need to do everything we can to help Iraq succeeds, but if a full blown civil war breaks out, I fear there will be nothing more we can do and have no reason to stay.
mods. Salty, if it were possible to win this militarily with the forces we have over there, it would have been done by now. The capability of the military is not in question. They did their job and sacked the country in 21 days. Then they were ordered into a no-win situation. The war was won militarily but the occupation was bungled politicically and the situation has morphed into a civil war. It's a political struggle now and we don't agree with any side in it. It ain't our fight. The Kurds are the only faction in Iraq who didn't loot their own country, cooperated with America during the invasion and have not attacked us in the occupation. We need to stand by those guys and allow them to ride out the troubles. But the raghead Sunnis and the Shiites have been fighting for 600 years, they hate each other and they both hate us. Neither deserve our help or our treasure. They are just going to have to fight this out and get it over with. Democracy will only come if they want it and they surely don't care what we want. They want to die for Allah while killing each other. It just ain't our fight. And it's kind of in our interests to actually let the militants kill each other. It's what we are doing in Afghanistan and where things are working out a whole lot better. We have other fights that are more important looming and we damn well better be ready.
