Illegal aliens.
Let’s not forget the terrorists. They won big too. 
There will be changes in Iraq and it will be played by them as the U.S. being weak.
You seem to be directly piped-in. Share with us exactly what changes will be taking-place in Iraq. Specific references cited would be greatly appreciated. When you do cite your inside information and references, please don’t bother with anything from the Freaking Outrageous Xenophobe (FOX) network. I’m looking for something a bit more…fair and balanced. Besides, they’re apparently having a singularly BAD WEEK over there.
Our current leadership’s “plan” worked great…for the invasion, that is. It’s pretty much been down sh*t hill ever since. Why exactly is that???
1.) Sec Def (read: Cheney/Feith/neocon cabal) decides that about 170,000 bodies is good 'nuff. And…it might have been if the Iraqi army (every staff grade officer below Colonel, all NCO’s and the entire rank-and-file, excepting the Republican Guard) had been retained, paid and re-tasked, and if the Iraqi civil police hadn’t been let-go for lack of pay and interest. (Stunning and inexplicable failure of planning, execution and leadership). Instead, our 170,000 servicefolk are expected to maintain order, secure a vast border, hunt for the WMD’s, and improve wrecked (and neglected) infrastructure. Sorry, Charlie, that’d be too big a task for a purely military force of twice that size. Never fear…we’ll augment our hard-chargers with a COALITION OF THE WILLING (comprised of 2,500 Brits, 500 Aussies, 350 Spaniards who later left, 250 Italians who later left, 400 Polacks, and four Bulgarians). “That’ll appease that sonofabitch Colin Powell and those commie-lovers over at State.”
2.) While every stinking jihadist from Indonesia to Casablanca watches this developing vacuum and signs-on to play, along with most of the remaining able-bodied Iraqi Sunnis and half the Iraqi Shia, our leadership says…hmmm…let’s have an election. Who should be in charge? Oh yes…Mr. Chalabi. His pedigree and integrity have played-out well so far. Whoops, that won’t work. Better find someone else. (Stunning and inexplicable failure of planning, execution and leadership). Meanwhile, we’ll just tell everyone back home things are going well. Very well, indeed. If folks start disbelieving that, we’ll insist on “staying the course.” When that finally needs a re-tread, we’ll deny we said it publicly 579 times, call in daddy’s out-to-pasture diplomats and advisors, and be “willing to make adjustments.” That is, after all, a much better updated plan, considering that Nancy Pelosi and her pack of rabid, tree-hugging commie-loving dope smokers and gay marriage proponents might be holding the purse strings. (Stunning and unfortunately, very explicable failure of planning, execution and leadership). Rut-roh, Ralph!
Most of us thought the necessary lessons about “wars of choice” had been learned in Indochina between 1961 and 1975. Actually, if anyone’d been paying attention, the French had already learned that lesson the hardest way possible by 1954, and all over a negligible quantity of coffee, rubber, rice, cotton and soybeans. Obviously critical staples for any (dying) empire.
It’s pretty clear that our current leadership learned nothing from Vietnam. That’s not at all surprising, since virtually none of them actually had the cojones to go FIGHT THERE. Apparently, they didn’t hit the books quite hard enough while enjoying their multiple deferments or while pulling dirty and dangerous duty in one of the Champagne Guard units. (No more of that bullsh*t in Iraq, eh???) Of course, when you’re walking-around drunk 23 hours a day, and sobering-up with a half-gram snootful of Columbia’s finest during your spare hour, learning can understandably be a real challenge.
http://www.nhgazette.com/cgi-bin/NHGstore.cgi?user_action=list&category=+NEWS;+Chickenhawks
Our troops have done everyting we asked of them. There can be no doubt that this is so…it virtually always is, regardless of the mission. The only thing left to explain where we stand today in Iraq is simple…FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP. In case you’re at-all hazy on that, I’m referring-to the civilian leadership. So…how about we acknowledge it, learn from it, and step-back while the adults come in and clean-up the mess? It may indeed turn out that their new and improved plans, if they do have them, won’t be prize winners. Time will tell (it always does, doesn’t it?). In the meantime, before we criticize folks who have not yet had a turn at the wheel in this debacle, let’s not delude ourselves concerning WHO got us into this predicament, and HOW they exacerbated it. That’d be plain ignorant, and you don’t strike me as ignorant.
:mrgreen:
This isn’t that tough Christopher. There will be changes because the American public does not support the War in Iraq. That’s not surprising considering the constant drumbeat of both the political left and their allies in the left leaning press. With congress now controlled by the Democrats they will be obligated to propose some “plan” to extricate this country from Iraq. They have not revealed their “plan” but they’ll think of something.
I am not saying that mistakes did not take place. They certainly were. They happen in EVERY war. The problem is that we are left with the current situation and instead of a united effort by our political leaders on both sides of the isle to win and secure the peace in Iraq we have just witnessed a situation in which one party chose to use the war to its own political advantage. The Dems now effectively control the purse strings, the committee chairmanships and the investigative powers in both houses. We will now get to see what issues they consider important. We can only hope for that the rancor will subside and that we can have reasoned debate that results in consensus on fighting the “war on terror” Perhaps some don’t think this war is real. I for will never forget the events of 9-11 but I fear the impatience of the American public is contributing to the lack of support for the war in Iraq. It probably would have been better to formally declare war and prosecuted it until the enemy surrendered. Instead we are left with something less final in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Because it was decided to have limited war we are left with a limited peace. If and most likely when the terrorist’s succeed in attacking this country again, attitudes will change. Post 9-11 we were united in supporting pursuit and elimination of those who would kill us. We will be again but we will suffer greatly before that happens.