Hypothetical Question: Iraq War?

Question

This is, in many ways a completely ficticious question. I just want to see how close-minded people can be, how easily people change the question in their minds, or maybe just how good of an answer I can get. Best answer will come down to a vote.


Pro Iraq War People:

What if tomorrow, the US pulled out of Iraq and one week later Iraq somehow had a stable government and it turned out that pulling out was the right choice. What would you think/do about the democrats and your past insults and such? Appologize, etc?? Or what?

Anti Iraq War People:

What if Bush's plan to increase the troop levels and new plans for Iraq fixed it completely and turned out to be the right thing. Would you appologize for insults at his views on additional troops and such? What would you do?

Thanks in advance. Try to keep this clean. :-)

Really Cyclops? Thanks for the compliment but I can't return one. You didn't answer the question. Good one.

I'm glad to see some of the more open-minded answers. Thank you.

Answer 1

I'm more pro war than anti war, so in your case: I would shut up and be glad that what I want happened did. It's unlikely, but if that's what it takes, then great. That's not what happened in Vietnam though, and history does tend to repeat itself....

Answer 2

82% were for the war following 911 to include the full congress. Many people blamed Clinton for not doing enough to stop Saddam and terrorism. They didn't care what the "excuse" to go to war was. The American people had the reason they needed, they were attacked, they were angry and they wanted revenge. Now a paulsy 30% supports the war. What that tells me, is that 50% of all Americans to include many congress members feel we have exacted our revenge and now want out. They use the Bush Lied or the no WMD's as the excuse to hide the fact that they can not come to grips with in the first place. That they wanted to kill someone for 911 and now that we have they feel better. So the answer is NO, most Americans wouldn't now change their minds because we are a "feel good society". This American says we gave our word to a country and now we must honor it, despite the hardship that keeping our word entails.

Answer 3

No, though I never insulted Bush's intelligence. I think he's very naive ("I looked into Putin's heart", "Iraqi People"-there is no such thing). I still fault the basic strategy of attacking a country that had tangential AT BEST, involvement on the "War on Terror" -whatever that is. With no real plan for reconstituting the Iraqi nation, and a refusal to see what was happening for months after conventional ops had stopped. That my friend is incompetence- if one of my officers had EVER operated without listening to the troops in contact, and then misrepresented the facts to me-they'd be gone.We have also allowed a possible rapprochement with Iran to go by the wayside, in the administration's Axis-of-Evil ideology. What guys in my former line of work were aware of, that maybe the civilian public at large is not, is that Iran was cooperating with tracking Al Qaeda operatives, and was allowing albeit very constrained cross-border operations to find terrorists. That cooperation is Gone, and now even if it's "Fixed completely" -though you have to define what that is- Iranian fundamentalist influence in Iraq will increase.
A more accurate term is "Counterinsurgency targeting Islamofascists" but that doesn't make good headlines.
The strategy that myself, and other military planners wanted to see was to strike Al Qaeda camps in Somalia and the Sudan.
Iraq has deflected troops, resources, and more importantly American (and world) support from the work in Afghanistan.

Answer 4

I support Bush on this because I think he has the better (but far from a perfect) course of action.

My short answer to your hypothetical question is yes, I would congratulate the Democrats and be 100% clear that I was wrong and they were right.

Since the Democrats won in November, I have to hope they are better for the country than the Republicans would have been, although I voted Republican precisely because I thought the Democrats would be worse for the country.

If my political opponents were right and I was wrong, I would be happy - whatever is best for the country, not the Republicans or my ego.

I have not addressed the probability of the outcome you posited, since I don't believe that was the point of your very interesting question.

Answer 5

Yours are good! But real life won't relate to "somehow" thing! Everything has reasons! The more logic an action is, the more realistic its result turn out to be! For Pro Iraq: if we leave, Iraq will be lost ( VN war is a real ex.). For Anti - increasing troops only won't work. New strategy and diplomatic effort must be added! Therefore, we normal people need to be patient to examine the progress and outcome of each event! The one, who has a strong background of politic and economic knowledge, must do speak to guide public! And people will decide what will serve US the best!

Answer 6

Dead Fox ... I don't think you'd see hardly any apologies. I have a tendency to believe that many of the most outspoken people are taking a side (a political party) more than taking a position. In other words, instead of analyzing the issue and addressing it directly, they're more interested in supporting the view of the party they usually support/follow.

Many who've taken sides regarding the war in Iraq are merely jumping on the anti-war bandwagon simply as a tool for opposing the President. Many (nearly all) senators voted to initially get involved. And although the weapons of mass destruction were not found, the President's opponents are simply using this as a tool for finding fault. Opposition through constructive criticism is potentially beneficial. But opposing purely for the sake of opposing/dividing without suggesting your own solution is dishonest, in my view, and helps no one.

An excellent question, Fox.

Answer 7

i am active duty army and your question is interesting and definately hypothetical. i don't think either would happen per say, but they both could come close. i don't know if the right answer is more troops, but i definately think pulling out is wrong too. i am caugfht in the middle and reading some of the answers that have come before mine really makes me think that people tend to stick to their guns and you can't change their minds about what they think at all. i know i didn't really answer your question, but i'd like to say it's a good one and i'll stay tuned to see what others write.

Answer 8

I'm pro war. So yeah, that would be great if we pulled out and everything fixed itself. I won't apologize or change my views just for the fact that I feel we are over there for a good reason. Yes it would be great if that happened. But one thing I've come to realize, is that the Democrats predictions are far less severe than that of the Republicans, so I would rather not take a chance to see if the worst could happen. I'm for trying to prevent the worst from happening.

Answer 9

Regardless of which way is right or wrong, I just hope they(IRAQ) can get their sh*t together soon so we can bring our men and women back home, and stop the bloodshed that has ensued.

Answer 10

Never apologize for ones passionate views on the Right or Left

Answer 11

We can base things on what we already know....iraqis support attacks on our troops, iraqis want us out, americans want us out, iraq is in a civil war now, chaos is in iraq now, past troop surges have not changed anything, the same policy has not worked. We can not fix iraq militarily, that is a fact!