Assuming you want to win the war in Iraqi, what would you do differently on military and governmental levels?

Question

This is not a question of whether the U.S. should be there or not. The question is strictly on a tactical level of distributing resources such as money, man power, diplomatic advice, etc. In my opinion, the U.S. has made many tactical errors, i.e. not protecting the borders, not having enough troops in theater, not systematically weeding out insurgents and terrorists, etc. The U.S. has also corruptly and inefficiently distributed resources spending our precious money in absurdly lucrative deals with only a few contractors instead of more evenly distributing the money throughout the populace. There is much more I can say on the subject but I want to read your opinions.

Answer 1

If you truly want to win a war do not let the politicians run the show. The politicians can set the goals and provide the resources, but leave the planning and execution to the generals.

Once the military objectives are met and security has been established, then nation building (didn't someone say once that we were not going to be nation builders?) can begin. The contracts could have been distributed in a manner that would have multiplied the benifit to the Iraquis by providing jobs to help in rebuilding the infrastructure.

Self-determination was a big part of US rhetoric during the Cold War. Reconstructing the government should not have excluded groups because we have a knee jerk reaction against their ideas or goals. The people should make that determination themselves. Marginalized groups who are left out of the political system cause internal strife. (Look at the Maoist rebels in Nepal, the Basque Separatists in Spain, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, etc.)

Answer 2

Some people have lots of opinion, but few have the experience or knowledge to back them up. If one has never served in any military branch, he/she certainly is talking out of their butt when they criticize tactics and policies. I'm sure 4-star generals are doing the best they can with "best-available" intelligence at the time those missions were carried out. I do agree with you on better selection process on contractors. War is complicated, certainly it's easy to see mistakes after they're made. At least this administration is taking SOME action to protect our country and bringing the fight to the terrorists, instead of waiting here like sitting ducks for a 2nd 9-11. It's a shame that most media are anti-Bush and choose NOT to report the great things going on in Iraq. It took over 200 hundreds years to build USA, what kind of idiot would expect a 3rd world country to have our standard of living in 5 years? People need to put this in perspective. Do they realize there's more casualties in downtown L.A. daily then soldiers killed in Iraq??? Figure that out.

Answer 3

the money spent will never be justified in EVERYONES EYES. there has to be more informants who can be able to penetrate into the insurgents crowd. more information has to be gained from them. money possible even funding of unconventional tactics. all the armor and planes will not solve the hot bed in iraq. it is time to play by underground rules. look into iran , syria, n korea, russia, china . all these countries seem to have interest inmost of the conflicts that the us has been involved. russia sold arms to iraq, they we even there when the bombs started falling. we need to fund the iraqi guard with loans only. iraq needs to fund there own civil war with the millons of dollars of oil in the ground. iraq troops need to secure there own borders. there must be a clamps down of there borders if syria play part. there must be strong force used on them to show not just syria but the world this will not be tolerated. US WILL NOT win this war with cowards. this is just a insurgency. the ied on the road side cannot be stopped until our troops are home and no one give a rats *** , and coverage of the wounded come to a stop. pull out and nuke them all ......i support bush and the troops , but we have lost the iraqi support . there is no foundation to build on .

Answer 4

We are being bled dry by this thing.
We should never have gone in to begin with.
But...once we got there we should have prevented all the looting and destruction that went on.
The only thing we can do now is hope that Iraqi Forces will soon be up to the task and that some sort of stablity is established in IRAQ.
The Iraqis want us out of there.
The Iraqis just want stablity and don't care who provides it.
U.S forces or Saddam or a conservative Islamic regime.

Answer 5

I would take over the govt and establish a US military Govt and martial law. I would start pumping oil and send it to the US to lower gas prices and PAY for the war. Then I would have the military start weeding out the bad guys and sending them to Guantanamo bay for a few years at the beach.. It would then become another state of the USA ..

Answer 6

Outline a definite plan for helping the Iraqi people set up a functioning government and security network. Be specific with goals but make certain you're flexible enough to deal with circumstances as they come up.

Answer 7

I would nuck them until they glow in the dark, when the dust settles, pave over the whole country and make a walmart parking lot out of it!