Iraq War: Finding the exit

[NNN0LHI]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/247186_uniraqed.asp

Pressure is growing on the Bush administration to enunciate a detailed strategy for the U.S. military occupation of Iraq, particularly about how it might end.

It's been little noted in the U.S. media, but the U.N. mandate that provided President Bush the diplomatic imprimatur for using military force in Iraq is due to expire. As reported in The Financial Times on Friday, Resolution 1546 is set to expire after the December elections in Iraq. The president has, of course, not always shown himself willing to wait for international sanction, but his Iraq adventure would be diplomatically complicated by the failure of the U.S.-backed resolution to extend the U.N. mandate for another year.

A resolution with bipartisan support in the U.S. House, meanwhile, would demand that Bush at least lay out a road map, if not a timetable, for what the war in Iraq should accomplish and when.

It's an example of Congress' attempt to regenerate a spine. The indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and the continuing investigation into the administration's prewar justifications for the invasion have given members of Congress who voted for the war reason to question whether they were bamboozled.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Selatius]

2. There is a tipping point where keeping them there might hurt more

The question is where is the tipping point. If the primary reason sustaining the resistance is the presence of foreign troops in Iraq, then staying will no longer help but hurt. The last thing Americans want is to stay another five years and see at the end of that five years the resistance is still as steady and persistent as before.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cornermouse]

4. I think there's just a little more post-war action in Iraq

than Germany or Japan ever thought about mounting... I also think we're well past the tipping point. All we're doing now is supplying the targets for the shooting gallery.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Skittles]

7. do you REALLY think

there is any chance in hell invading, bombing and occupying Iraq is EVER going to lead to STABILITY ?

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Skittles]

12. I don't know what propaganda you are reading

but Iraq is far more unstable now than it ever has been.....and please tell me you are either a veteran or planing to enlist soon.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Skittles]

21. typical

conservative chickenhawk - all for war as long as someone else is serving

[leftchick]

20. here is an example of Iraq stability , USA style

http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news...

The bodies are arriving at the mortuary in Baghdad in such large numbers that the orderlies have run out of places to store them properly.

They are forced to leave them in piles in the overloaded freezer compartments or send them for burial in anonymous graves.


Grief at the funeral of a driver, killed on Saturday by gunmen
Last month there were 972 corpses received, almost all victims of violent death. The vast majority were brought in with bullet holes. Many had their hands bound and faces mutilated.

No one knows quite how many people are being killed in Iraq or by whom.

But the evidence at Baghdad's mortuary shows that the number has increased and that the number of Iraqis killed in the capital every two months is equivalent to the total number of US troops to die in the conflict so far.


...This is the most recent example I have seen of the US style freedom promised to Iraqis. It is time to bring the troops home now. We are not in Iraq for the altruistic reasons you have stated. You need to brush up on your PNAC reading material.

[cornermouse]

8. Before going to war, a thinking person would make sure

their reasons were based on solid facts that were given long and hard consideration. That was not done in Iraq. They had an objective and tried to manipulate the facts to fit the objective.

America will never be able to establish a working democracy in Iraq. We have killed and tortured Iraqis. We have helped establish the next Muslim theocracy. It may not mean much to you that women who have never worn burkas in their life are now forced to wear to them in self preservation, but that little fact speaks volumes to me.

In addition, we have killed and tortured them just like Saddam. And by the way, have you seen pictures where our troops took over and occupied someone's house? What did we do when the British did all of that to us? Did we submit? Is there any reason to think that they are somehow less capable of anger, resentment, and rebellion than we were?

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Skittles]

6. jeopardizing all our efforts???

IT IS A BIG FAT F***ING FAILURE

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cornermouse]

11. Two words.

Muslim theocracy. That says it all.

[Skittles]

13. yup - bin Laden's dream

good going, bush :thumbsdown:

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Skittles]

18. OMG

YOU LIVE IN BUSH WORLD: don't you get it? WE ARE PUTTING SOMETHING IN PLACE THAT IS FAR WORSE THAN WHAT WAS THERE BEFORE.

[annabanana]

17. RonRon,

I think you have some reading to do. Iraq was never a country that grew in an organic fashion from the people. It was cobbled together by the British and held together by a secular strongman. Now that we've removed him, and haven't been able to even provide physical security to to the populace, every fiber in the "country" is pulling in it's own tribal, cultural, and religious direction. Sunni vs Shia, Persian vs Arab... some with support from outside the borders, some fighting desperately for it's ouwn singular existence.

Every "effort so far" has been malign.

[Skittles]

19. I've alerted

no matter how much I hear about the results of conservative brainwashing, it is still so very painful to actually read it for myself