Can the war in Iraq be won?

Question

I think at this point, we must ask ourselves, can the war in Iraq be won? And if not, should we get out of an impossible situation?

As for my own views of the crisis, I believe yes, the war in Iraq can be won but only if we don't go in half assed and when we go in we show them we mean business. The first part is to do what needs to be done, we initiate the draft so up the man power from a measly 150000 to triple that number or more. We raise taxes to support the country. And we mobilize our industry to support the cause. If you were in WWII, this would sound very familiar.

The second portion is truly consider this a war and if massive killings are required, American determination will persevere.

So here's the question, is the American people willing to go this war and do this much? If yes, then your support of Bush is justified and although I disagree with you, I do admire you. But if no, then Bush's method will not work. Why won't you let us get out of a bad sit.?

replace war with far in that last paragraph please, I have a funky keyboard.

Answer 1

(1) Conscription is a BAD idea. It costs too much to train and equip troops to American standards now only to see them discharged after 18 months. It is pointless. Taking military age youth away from the economy impacts your tax base. Veterans who come back crippled are a significant cost on the health care and pension system. Westmoreland, by the way, asked for more troops after Tet. If 150,000 aren't enough now, what makes you think 300,000 would make a difference, when it's too late to make the numbers count and the methodology of the war is questionable at best?

(2) Retooling American industry to go on a complete "war footing" to fight counterinsurgency operations is ridiculous. It is such a command economy that brought the Soviet Union crashing down. The United States could not survive the downturn in supplying its ravenous consumer base. The government can't pay for everything; it's already in hock. Raise taxes? On what, when income diminishes and consumer sales dwindle as industrial capacity makes guns and tanks? Fund it through bonds? What, when the household savings rate is laughable?

(3) If "massive killings are required" you said? Do you or not understand this is a counterinsurgency and a civil war? No uniformed enemies? Nothing to fix and pin down in the method you describe without inflicting "massive civilian casualties"? So "American determination" means what? We are willing to intervene in sectarian violence by reducing city blocks to dust? If there's a domestic disturbance on your block, do you expect a SWAT raid each and every time as appropriate measures to deal with it?

(4) The questions are, can we do the right thing with limited resources, without going broke? Can we intervene in all this violence the right way, without bringing undue and senseless misery? Can we stop treating this like the Christian vs Muslim war the extremists WANT us to believe it is, a winnable war against a single clearly defined enemy when there are legions of players in this tragedy?

More to the point, how can Americans reconcile their values to failures in foreign policy? How can the corruption and mismanagement over the decades that have bankrupted government and turned the best of our institutions into clearinghouses for imbeciles on all sides of the political spectrum be repaired? And will America make the self-introspection and changes required to be a force for change and truly victorious in war by winning hearts and minds instead of filling hospitals and graves?

Answer 2

We can win the physical combat, but it appears our liberal brethern have already thrown in the towel and conceded defeat in the political war, just as they did to our soldiers in Vietnam, and Korea.

Our country has become a collection of politically correct pantie wastes. I agree that diplomacy should be at the forefront of any and all disagreements, but the problem we have is that some people won't listen.

Saddam was give options for over 10 years, but France Russia and Germany help him skirt around the U.N. Sanctions.

Our own countrymen have let immigrants move in and try to turn our country into the countries they escaped in the first place.

I would love to be able to walk away from Iraq and Afganistan. I would even like to bring all of the troops home from all overseas locations. Unfortunately since there are all kinds of people that want to eliminate the western world(ie Americans) from the face of the earth we will be in a struggle for a long time to come.

Answer 3

Everyone who says the war cannot be won, is simply uninformed. The war was won years ago, but the Media keeps up with their half-assed reports telling the American people there is a war. The war in Iraq has already been won. What we face now is the security of a country on it's knees. We did the same thing in Korea following the Korean war.

We are on the defence there, not on the attack. 99% of the insurgance are from Syria, Pakistan, Iran and Saudi. They do not want Iraq to become a democratic nation as it will ruin the terror based hold within the middle east by tyrants.

No matter Insurgance sympathizers or anti-Bush individuals say or think, there is a lot of good happening. i was there for the first elections and the support was outstanding. We are doing good things there, but no one wants to see that...they are blinded by ignorance.

Answer 4

It is doubtful. The United States would have to run Iraq like an Iperialist power of the 1600s-1800s. This means killing all current Iraqi leaders first off: no democracy for you. The next step is turning Iraqis into the Americans, like the Spanish and British did in Central America and India respectively. This works by the philosophy that the US knows best and that since our system is best, the Iraqis will follow it and become just like us. Or die. We would first off get rid of Islam, and that's a fact. We would reeducate the Iraqis in a secular system and teach them how to be an American. Under an Imperialist power. Huh? It doesn't work. Americans wouldn't tolerate any of this! We aren't arrogant enough and don't live in a class society like the British did. One of the things Imperialist powers all had in common was that thier culture was the best and the other's was bullshit. Americans don't live that way. The constitution we drafted for them is religious based, for god's sake! No self-respecting Imperialist lets their conquest have its own constitution, and they CERTAINLY don't start handing out democarcy the year after they take over.

So no. We can't win the Iraq war unless we treat Iraq as a conquered nation and our system turns into a dictatorial Imperialist one. Which the United States will not do, as far as I am concerned. And a good thing that is, too.

Answer 5

We can't measure success or failure if we don't have a goal at the first place.

If the goal is to kill all Al Qaida, we are not gonna win this war for obvious reason. (no one can destroy any group completely... the most they can do maybe just to minimize their activities.)

If the goal is defeat the terrorist, it will take generations to do it and the expenses is not measurable...

If the goal is to stablize iraq and have a democratic iraqi government, we are on the way to this long process and god forbids we will need to pay more than what we have already sacraficed.

If the goal is to create an independent iraqi central government and have them control everything including security force, we are winning this war in the near future.

Answer 6

As bad as that is, it goes beyond even that. The link below, to the Los Angeles Times -- the biggest newspaper west of the East Coast is hardly a liberal paper, and had never endorsed a Democrat for President until last fall, not even FDR -- shows that an Afghan journalist advocated for women's rights, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for "blasphemy," and that was after his sentence was reduced from... death. In Afghanistan today, you can get death for expressing the wish for women to have equal rights, or for exercising freedom of religion -- which, in these wacko's minds, is exactly the same thing. (In a progressive American's mind, it COULD be the same thing, but not necessarily.) Tell me again, right-wingers! Tell me again that your boy Bush liberated Iraq and Afghanistan! You don't know what the hell "liberated" means!

Answer 7

Yes, yes it can if the Washington DC p*ssies stop playing and blew the Middle East off the f*cking face of the planet. See the end the problem. Either that or the bankrupt the whole middle east by blewing up and lighting all the oil on fire that would solve some of the pollution issues too getting two birds with one stone.

Answer 8

US already won... US dominates the area,controls the minorities,controls the oil...the war was for these anyway.
Bush didn't want a conquest at the beginning...it was about putting his man in oil areas and he successfully did it.

It doesn't mean i support him,i live in Turkey (a neighbour of Iraq) and that's what i see.

Answer 9

How do you define "won?" Massive troops to do what?

Massive killings required--of whom?

The (current) definition of "victory" in Iraq is having the Iraqis able to take care of security themselves.

Answer 10

It can be won, but I don't think the nation is prepared to pay the price of complete victory.