What constitutes a "win" in the war in Iraq?

Question

Why do Republican lawmakers keep talking about how the troops in Iraq can't win the war in Iraq if their funding is cut? I want the Congress to talk about what constitutes a "win" in the war. Let's see we've lost about 3200 troops to how many for the enemy... Some people would contend we've lost already by losing this many troops and let's not forget the countless others that have been injured. And then let's not forget the War Crimes that have been committed or the sectarian violence we can't seem to get a grip on. Is continued funding really going to help us "win"?

Answer 1

It is quite reasonable to ask the advocates of continuing the Iraq invasion to tell us what the goal is. What does "winning" mean? Establishing a democracy where there never has been one? Taking sides in a civil war that has been going on for centuries?

On the other hand, what does "losing" mean? Haven't we already lost?

In Las Vegas there are people who have lost money and they are sure that if they just keep on staying the course they will win it back. So they keep putting chips on the table until eventually the rent money is gone and they return home destitute.

There comes a time when a smart player knows it's time to cut your losses and walk away. It's time for us to get up from the craps table and say "enough" in Iraq. Let's go home and start addressing our very real domestic problems. If the Iraqis are unable to deal with their own situation, we are not obligated to stay on and hemorrhage our blood and treasure to do it for them.

America first.

Answer 2

They are trying to put the democrats in a "loose- loose" situation I feel. They tell the public over and over if they dont get the billions and billions of dollars they want for this war than our troops will not have the proper equipment and so on and so forth. So the democrats are now in a "sticky" position becuase they will look bad to reject this unnecessarily large amount of funding, so what are they supose to do. There was a vote today and so far the democrats are sticking by their guns saying that they arent going to fund the war. It is truely politicians doing what they do best, minipulating. As for winning the war...maybe we can say we broke even?? and thats a stretch. Winning is impossible. I see people talking about how if we withdrawal the terrorists will come and attack and we would be unsafe, but I would like to see one argument for being safer today than on 9/11. What has changed? Oh Sudam is dead, and I guess the people who followed him, arent pissed or nothing, Someone worse will just take his place, and yes there are much worse people who really have it out for the US.

Answer 3

We won the 'conventional' war in about three weeks. Then came the occupation. Then came the civil war on top of the occpation. The Bush Junta was and still is unprepared and unable to cope with the situation that 'winning the war' part of the equation fostered. At this time to be truthful it's a civil war, sunni vs shiite, a war of resistance, sunni and shiite against the US military and their collaborators and a totally lame military 'occupation' that's going nowhere,mainly because it has nowhere to go...except on and on! Bush can delude himself all he wants, but if he's a 'war president' then he's a losing war president. The sooner this bum and his goofy cold war retread handlers get the hell out of Washington the better for everyone! At least then we can start to sort this #$%^ up out!

Answer 4

For our current government, a win in Iraq would constitute eliminating Muslims altogether. How many losses for the 'enemy'? Millions. Not all of these millions were terrorists, believe me. People may say "Well, that's war" in regard to civilian casualties in Iraq, but they wouldn't be singing the same tune if there were a million or more American troops killed. They would burn the President at the stake.

As for what will happen when the funding is cut, the civil war will finish out on its own, the troops will suffer far less terrible losses, disabilities, or and/or TBI's, we can look into the real "terrorist" threats (which are almost never centralized in one country - although Iran & N. Korea have been ignored so long it's no shock they have nuclear caches), and we can help those here at home who need it. The true quality of living for vets would increase, the economy wouldn't be such a horrific mess, I would get paid enough to own more than a one-bedroom apartment (my Master's, while in some ways worth the $50,000 debt it put me in, sure as heck never raised my salary), and there would be more programs to help our children survive mentally and physically in this crazy world.

Our troops chances of survival are much better than they were in any previous war, but they are also coming home with more varied and severe injuries than those in other wars. The quality of life for these people fighting for our country is absolute garbage once they come back to it. Vets' programs are in trouble everywhere and those screaming about patriotism and supporting our troops in Iraq sure as heck aren't screaming about supporting our troops HERE. The V.A. doesn't have nearly enough workers who can help those coming back from Iraq with such terribly debilitating injuries, nor do they have enough resources to educate staff about the psychological and physical repercussions these poor men & women have to go through. Remember that one guy Bush went to visit in the hospital?. A hand-salute and a pat on the shoulder did neither him nor his family any good whatsoever. The man is in constant pain and since our funding is so low on both the state and federal levels, he along with tens of thousands of others cannot get the help they need here in America. We are too busy fighting a war that was not only over years ago, but that never should have been fought in the first place. It is a travesty to hear from people who actually believe Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, and don't question more seriously why our great superpower wasn't able to capture and kill Osama bin Laden.

We hear in the news all about how few troops have died in Iraq - but we almost never hear of the Iraqi deaths (or about the troops that have been severely injured and cannot get medical and psychiatric help in the U.S). It's disgusting. I hope Bush and his cronies are put on trial for war crimes but I know it will never happen - it is rare for many people to "catch" those who utilize nationalism as propaganda - remember Hitler? And people claim they have complete freedom? What about the troops who can't get a decent job or the best help? What about those of us who are called "unpatriotic" for daring to disagree with this horrendous war?

Good question.

Answer 5

at this point we are between a rock and a hard place. Not going isn't an option because we've already gone and been.

We've walked into the lions den so to speak and now theres now way to just walk out. Secondly the lions are hungry enough to fight one another what made us so smart as to think we could walk our porky pink buts in there and not look like the main course?

But at the same time we can't just walk out even if the door is open, with a door opened as wide as it would need to be for us to make a swift withdrawl alot of the lions would get out and reak havoc in the streets of every American town of note.

Boy did we mess up, but no it's time to stand up and say No to the bad litttle bullys on the playground. Whether it gets us pommeled or gets the point across..we sure don't want them to think they can puch us face first into the mud and get away with it. They would just come back and do it again.

Answer 6

There is no way to win. Once we leave, there is going to be a full scale civil war. I say we leave, call it a "draw", and let the Iraqi people settle this thing themselves. A 100,000 soldiers from a foreign country are not going to be able to solve a dispute between two sides (that both hate us) that has been going on for centuries.

Our arrogance got us into this mess.

Answer 7

Your comment above brings an excellent important point that is often unknown by most people in this country. That is the number of lost enemy fighters. Why don't we ever here those totals. I think it must be more than 10,000. Anyone know what the offical count is by the US military? It must be reported by someone somewhere. I just don't recall ever hearing the figure.

Answer 8

This makes me ill to think that our American Soldiers are there fighting and they don't know who is who! Bush has ask for $78 Million to rebuild Afgan. & Iraq.

Bush will be the one to reinstate the draft. If you are not in college you will be going either to Iraq and/or Iran. Think about it!

We build them and the insurgents fires missles and blows them up. All at taxpayers expense.

Answer 9

Head counts were a big thing in Vietnam. Perhaps we should have Al kay eda stiffs counted and heads on spikes! George would love that. He could have his photo taken with a load of dead heads. again.

Answer 10

Win.
Iraq stands on its own and not to run away before that is done.
If we do we are going to invite more trouble to the like the would make 9/11 look like nothing.
If we help Iraq to get to that point guess what those in Iran will see that we don't run away and that would give them a motivation to take on their own government.

You have a nano concept of history they understand history in the long term.