The US military was very successful at Containing Iraq/Saddam for a decade before 9/11 so why wouldn't that...

Question

work now?

Keep some US troops in Northern Kurdish held Iraq (kurds love the US). Keep some troops in Kuwait. Redeploy some to Afgahistan. Keep US carriers/some marines in Persian Gulf. Make all of Iraq a no fly zone. Bring half of all US troops home. And if major civil war breaks out contain it to Iraq only (don't let Syria or Iran get involved) & once the civil war has been won, bribe them, I mean give them massive US aid, so that they become US friends just like the US does with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, etc....Pretty good plan isn't it? If you have a better way I'd love to hear it.

Answer 1

It's different now from 90s. When Saddam's regime fell they disbanded Iraqi army basically putting thousands of armed men, trained to fight, on the streets of Iraq with no jobs. These people went on to bomb US troops using cell phone and IEDs. The problem is that US refused to recognize violence and insurgency until it got really really bad. And we're talking about region full of notoriously unpredictable group of people. Problem with civil war is that Sunnis and Shiites from other neighboring countries will get involved by funding the war or even directly. This is almost impossible to avoid, both physically, diplomatically. Saudi have just said they'll support Sunnis if civil war breaks out. Shiites from Iran, Palestine, Syria would also get into action eventually. This is why no one can come up with any close to 'good plan.' We got ourselves into situation where we really don't have any good options.

Answer 2

You are missing the whole point. Iraq is not just about Iraq, it is about changing the entire culture of the middle east. Anybody that listened to 13 months of Bush's speeches before we invaded knows this.

Why do 99% of all terrorists come from the middle east? Because until we liberated Afghanistan and Iraq every country was a poverty ridden tyranny. 99% of the wealth of those countries is owned by the top 1% of the population (kings, sheiks, dictators, etc.). 70% of the population is under 25 years old. Average unemployment ranges from 30%-40%. Literacy averages about 40%. And they are constantly fed a religion that teaches them to blow themselves up. You can't get a more perfect breeding ground than that.

So, how do we fix it? We get rid of the tyrannies and allow democracy to flourish. Only in a democracy can the economy improve and the middle-class grow.

If we leave now, the fledgling democracies will probably fail. The whole region will continue to be a breeding ground for terrorists, and those terrorists are very very close to having NUKES!

We must stop being panty-waisted wusses and stop trying to run away because of a very tiny number of casualties. Leaving now is a 100% garuntee that a nuke will go off in an American city. What kind of retarded individual wants that?

Answer 3

I think it was more like we kept Saddam Hussein and his army contained but Hussein kept the country of Iraq and the religious extremists under control. Hussein, a Baathist is an athiest. Hussein wouldn't allow Al Qaida to set up any training camps or, for that matter, to set foot inside Iraq.
Iran and Syria poured over the border right after we attacked Iraq, something that never could have happened under Hussein.

Answer 4

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