Civil War In Iraq Is Just Over The Horizon

[The Lone Liberal]

The events unfolding in Iraq were predictable by anyone. When Bush started his campaign to embroil this country in the quicksand of Iraq he sold his venture to the unwitting public by telling them how the Iraqi people would welcome us with open arms and parades. Anyone with half a brain and a modicum of understanding to the geopolitical makeup of Iraq knew that was bullshit.

Our troops are now standing at the edge of a maelstrom that is gathering momentum and has the potential of engulfing this country and our troops in a blood bath unparalleled in our history. Why our military and intelligence community went along with this sorry episode will be a black page in history of this country.

Bush lied about why we should go to war, Bush lied about how much it would cost, that cost now approaching $600 billion and he lied about how long we would be there.

[Mistress Quickly]

1. how long did he say we would be there? n/t

[ewagner]

2. If memory serves me

he said we would be there "as long as it takes and not one day more".

loneliberal was right....almost anybody with an understanding of the history and culture of Iraq and the surrounding region was cautioning against this invasion for the same reason.

[Mistress Quickly]

3. thanks for the info n/t

[Eloriel]

14. It didn't even take that much education on the subject

Heck, I'm "history challenged," and *I* knew it was a crock. Of course, I also read a bunch of articles on the subject prior to the war to flesh out my own instincts, but really just common sense serves very well to figure it out.

And, even for us history challenged folks, most of us remember the Crusades and that Westerners weren't exactly welcomed then, either.

Eloriel

[The Lone Liberal]

6. Only after pressed for an answer and after the war had started

He said "we will be there as long as it takes and not a minute longer." Before the war, his talk and his administrative voice was saying that the people of Iraq would welcome us with open arms, which lead the public to believe that we would be there for a very short time. Even looking at his answer you see he is evading the the question.

[Jacobin]

16. Cheney said "weeks, not months"

when pressed on the issue shortly before the invasion.

He seems to be hiding these days...

[greatauntoftriplets]

4. And from what I've heard today,

the Shiites are ready to get the ball rolling very soon.

[wtmusic]

5. The ball has been rolling since day one

and it's getting bigger.

Q: How many RPG attacks does it take before * realizes the Iraqis don't want us there?

[LibDemAlways]

8. The chimp doesn't care how many

soldiers die or what the Iraqis think. It was never about them anyway. As long as the oil is flowing and Halliburton is profitting, Bushco will lose no sleep.

[rwork]

12. No he does'nt care.

He will stumble over some prewritten lines about how they are saving the peace and quote some biblical scripture.

[barbaraann]

20. Actually, I think it's worse than that.

I believe he actually gets pleasure from death and suffering.

[pfitz59]

11. Human wave attacks.........

they will overwhelm our troops by their sheer numbers! Zulus did it against Brits in SA in 1876. Sioux and Cheyenne did same to Custer. The dead will lie in steaming heaps.

[nostamj]

15. they showed a MASSIVE protest

among the shia, (who are *supposed* to be our friends) last night (CNN, I think)

it's going downhill no matter how harder the corporate criminals are spinning things.

but it's no use hoping that the presstitutes will turn the cameras away from Arnold, Kobe & Laci long enough to tell the truth about what's happening in Iraq (much less Afghanistan)

[rwork]

7. I wonder, if this turns into a civil war

considering the defense departments determination, will our troops use tactics similar to what the Israelis have been using again'st the Palistinians, such as military dozers to destroy large areas of buildings and just how effective could a civil war be, considering the US military might. Cluster bombs, cruise missiles, etc.

[Aristus]

9. Let's see.

Getting involved in a civil war in a hot, third-world country.
We're propping up the provisional government with corrupt yes-men.
We sent soldiers there under false pretenses.
They don't know how to tell the 'good guys' from the 'bad guys'.
They are getting killed on a daily basis by angry civilians.
America is being called a rampant imperialistic power.
We don't have any idea when it will end.

Is it too much to hope that the guy who started it all again will be thrown out on his ass sometime next year?

[ozymandius]

13. As effective as Chechen rebels against Russian military.

Cluster bombs and cruise missiles are no good when your troops are already entrenched in the area where the bombs will fall. Bulldozers work pretty well in tearing down buildings but they lack the technical sophistication and armor that regular military forces employ as "force multipliers". The technical advantage that the US held over Iraq regular military at the outset of the war was the "force multiplier" effect afforded by superior weaponry, body armor and communications. When you have peole on the ground, in close quarters fighting, against an enemy that blends easily into the background (a-la Vietnam) then the technical advantage is lost.

Close quarters fighting evoked the greatest concern from military experts prior to this war's beginning. The truth of the matter is: the US military did not defeat Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi military defeated Saddam Hussein because they did not fight.

Should full-scale guerilla war ensue, then the prospects for US troops are grim. The Iraqi military knew that they could never win a conflict against the US in a conventional sense. This is why the Iraqi military retooled its techniques following the first Gulf War. Iraq spent years studying guerilla warfare and -especially- the techniques the US used in the Kosovo conflict. As of yet, this new knowledge has not been put to concerted use. I wonder if it will be as the Iraqi military shows little sign of cohesion.

[ewagner]

21. Also

If you can believe anything the press says, Saddam was intrigued by the book and later the movie Black Hawk Down. In fact, he had his Generals read it.

Soooo...as soon as Dubya starts the march to war.... Saddam and his loyal forces slip quietly into the populace and start a war of attrition AND do everything they can to foment a civil war to drive the Americans out and let them pick up the pieces afterwards.

[Jacobin]

17. You can't win a guerilla war with military might

Page Ariel Sharon.

[realFedUp]

10. How do you tell the different groups apart?

Not like they wear uniforms...

[Junkdrawer]

18. The presence of our troops acting as a "common enemy" is probably...

the only thing holding that country together. However, the more developed the new "Iraqi" goverment becomes, and the more our anti-Shiite and anti-Kurd bias is exposed, the more likely civil war becomes.

[catmandu57]

19. It's falling apart pretty fast

Different regions of a country cobbled together by the late british empire are falling back to what they were before. The Kurds in the north will be fighting a two front war, one conjoined with the Turkish Kurds to carve out their own country, and against the irai tribes from the south. Shiite will fight sunni and both will tear down our puppet regime. The u.s and british troops will find themselves stuck in the quicksand of chaos. Nice going pnac I hope all of you bastards burn in your own hell for eternity.