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Originally Posted by Downthestretch55
Pgardn,
If you think there is any hope of victory in Iraq at this point, I must respectfully disagree. US military forces, despite their "good" intentions, will not prevent or decide the outcome of civil war.
Early on in this debacle, Rumsfeld was asked if this is a "quagmire".
He ducked answering that question three years ago when he had no clue of an "exit strategy". Same way he ducked Hillary's queston today, "Based on your track record, why should we believe you now?"
His answer, " My goodness! ...blah, blah blah...no answer." then a discourse about the history of wars..."the cold war lasted 40 years."
Truth be told, the civil war has been going on for quite a while now. Check it out if you read international press, not just US propaganda.
As far as Israel is concerned, they have a much smaller military than the US.
They are stretched very thinly now. They continue to create the potential for future reprisals. I'd really like for them to be successful and peaceful, but they are creating their own negative outcomes, and dragging the US (their main supporter and supplier) down with them.
Here's an article that the rest of the world has access to:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0803-02.htm |
DTS we could easily have this country under control. But what it would take is not platable in moral terms. We could, if we wanted, make them start all over. But the number of people that would die to give us this effect would be condemned by everyone.
Israel cannot be allowed to live with a neighbor that will bomb them at will. Let us remember that Hezbollah made a calculated decision to start this. In the meeting of the Muslim nations yesterday/today, Iran's president again stated that Israel cannot be allowed to Exist. Israel could get 20,000 troops into Lebanon. That will be enough, this is a very small area compared to what we are trying to take on. But Hezbollah will eventually reinfiltrate and the problems will start again if things are not done correctly. And that is because Lebanon is no longer an independent country. I guarantee if Hezbollah had to do it all over again they would have stayed out. More and more it appears that total victory is the only way. Japan and Germany understand that.
BTW. Anyone on the board want to volunteer for the UN stabilizing force to be sent to that area? The UN force that goes in must be allowed to fight back. So that leaves out the French...