How do we end this war without losing?

Question

After a long discussion with my father and my brother who is a Command Sergeant Major in the 101st airborne and was just told he would be going back to Iraq for the 4th time, we had different opinions on how the U.S. should proceed in Iraq and in the Middle East in general. We are all 3 Patriots and have served or are serving our country. We 100% support our troops and their mission. But we no longer seem to be fighting an enemy army. Instead we're fighting insane radicals who think dying is glorious. How do fight that? How do we convince the Iraqi people that things are better now when 100s are dying every day at the hands of these radical insurgents? Just things we talked about, what do you think?

Answer 1

Excellent and well worded question! Having been twice, and discussing it with my friends who have all been or are currently in country, the prevailing opinion seems to be that we (the soldiers) should be allowed to do what we're trained to do, instead of what the court of public opinion TELLS us to do.

By this, I mean we are, at this moment, figuritively fighting blindfolded, one hand tied behind our back, and hopping on one leg. Its war. People die. Innocent people die. We can negate that a lot more than in the past, but its still going to happen.
The incorrect perception in the American public (because of a biased media) is that we are LOSING in Iraq. Why? Because we've taken casualties? Thats called WAR people!
The media also announced that we'd LOST in Vietnam, however the military never lost a single force on force engagement in the entire war. Politics and anti war protests LOST the Vietnam war.
And that seems to be the trend in Iraq as well.
It happened in Somalia in 1993. 18 Americans were killed. Conservative estimates put the number of Somali insurgents killed by the Americans close to 1,000! But 18 Americans died and I guess that number is not worth anything.
But its the American public, who sees 90 second clips, of what the news outlets WANT them to see, on the nightly news about what is happening in Iraq, that will force us to do something detrimental to the this country...just like Vietnam...just like Somalia.

In the words of someone I know "Pave the place, or leave"




Addition: Hey Oneal 1845! If you want to bring up about how the terrorists love to die for their cause because they believe they'll go strait to paradise and get 72 virgins etc, why do apologists and people like you worry SO Much about their rights and their treatment. Killing them is doing them a favor, according to them, so why the bleeding hearts?

Answer 2

Democracies cannot win small wars without escalating the level of violence. Bombing and arrests are simply not enough. Troops have to go into the country and completely destroy - eradicate the enemy. This is something which the media and every civil rights / liberal supporter would not tolerate.

Best thing to do to retain any sense of victory is to get Iraqis up and running to defend their own country. There also has to be a sense of unity among all Iraqis to stand up and not only fight for Iraq but actively vote in elections and denounce extremism....

The world can only help Iraq up to a point - Iraqis have to be prepared to help themselves. And we need to start encouraging the Middle East to resolve its own problems....

Answer 3

Firstly I want to thank you for asking a great question and taking notice of how we're not fighting an army. Often times I'm told by others how I must be a coward and want us to pull out because I say things like that. "Kill Terrorists" is not an effective plan for Iraq.


We need to win the people over, and that's a very steep uphill battle. Personally, I believe that with our current leader it will not come into play. A firm hand works well in some situations and standing tall and letting the opponent get crushed by your brute strength also works at times. Unfortunately, not now. We need to go all the way, or not at all. Staying with only our feet in the water and giving a half-assed effort is what's killing more soldiers and civilians.

The problem is that in Iraq it's not hard to convince someone the torture they see and the killing they see by America is worse than what Saddam was doing. They're desperate and desperate people are more easy to persuade to change views or change positions. I don't claim to know what exact tactic to use... I just know it's not the one we're using now.

We have to define what it is to WIN before we can get there. Right now Bush just tells us that we have to kill the terrorists. We need security, safety, and much more if we even want to dream of any victory.

Answer 4

There is a great chance that there may be no "winning" this war, as long as winning is defined as leaving behind a stable democratic Iraqi government, capable of maintaining order. That shows no signs of happening any time soon, and indeed it may never happen.

Not to disparage the tremendous effort and sacrifice made by our men and women in the armed forces, but "not losing" (by the above definition) appears to be a less and less likely outcome as the war drags on. Perhaps the best we can hope for is to disengage honorably, but considering the worldwide condemnation of the war from the outset, even that may be difficult.

In my opinion, the most honorable thing the U.S. can do now is leave, as soon as possible, with an ironclad promise to help rebuild Iraq when the smoke clears. This will also allow us to start redeploying our forces and our resources the better to actually fight terrorism, which, you will recall, is what this war was supposed to be about. It will also allow the long, slow process of recovering our national honor from this debacle to begin.

Answer 5

I think its hard to change the opinions of people when they are brought up in a world where violence is a normal thing.

Personally. I think our occupation there is fueling the fire for other neighboring countries like Iran to hate us even more. I fully support our troops and allied troops out there.. I just don't see it coming to a end any time soon. I don't even see what we could possibly do to remove our presence over there without any huge aftereffects going down. such as our reputation. (for leaving a war we got rolling in the first place)

-Isnt it true that some of the islamic radicals beleive that when they die.. they will be rewarded with 72 virgins or something like that?
No wonder death is nothing big to them.. they are looking forward to their afterlife and will do whatever it takes to get them there.. not caring about what is lost and destroyed. Life is of no object to them.. its like how a few coins are to a billionaire. Worthless.

With that type of brainwashed population.. That just makes America's task a WHOLE lot harder. Kevin Sites went inside these hot zones and got interviews of people claiming they Hate America.. while others say they welcome our help and are glad we're there.

I cant think of any other options we can make to end this situation. We either Stay and continue to lose precious soldier's lives or Leave and take the hit on our reputation.

Answer 6

actually, we did win. all the conditions laid out by congress validating the Iraqi invasion have been met. the problem is that we didn't have the good sense to leave then and now internal strife has brought about a civil war that they need to address. When the US became liberated from England WE set up our government and through many shaky years we created a working democracy. our allies didn't help us or molest us after we gained our freedom. If democracy fails in the Iraq it's because it wasn't worth enough to THEM to preserve. best thing we can do is get back to the business of seeking and destroying al quaeda's training grounds.

Answer 7

The war in Afghanistan is a war which will flow on as long as we are there to combat it. we are able to in no way win it via any stretch of the mind's eye because of the fact we are actually not combating to win. evaluate the way we fought international war 2 to the war we are accomplishing operations in Afghanistan and you will right this moment see why we are able to in no way win. We did no longer "win" in Iraq. Out troops left Iraq because of the fact we've been kicked out via the Iraqi government. as quickly as we are long previous sufficient from Iraq, the U. S. imposed "democracy" will fall via the wayside and the rustic will the two revert to three form of non secular theocracy or replace into embroiled in a brutal civil war which will drag on for years. each thing we've performed in Iraq, all the money that has been spent and all the lives lost, would be completely wasted. Pakistan is an anti-American united states which could particularly help terrorism. the sole reason Pakistan ever cooperated with the U. S. in any respect became into because of the fact the U. S. threatened to "bomb them back to the stone age" in the event that they did no longer. the acceptable element for the U. S. to do is to get out of all those countries and stay out. Our very presence there's a huge area of the subject.

Answer 8

In order to win, we have to win the people. It's the people who're giving safe haven to the insurgents. Create a sense of national pride. If the people stop identifying with the insurgents, you win, because the people will aid your fight. Teach them to repel their invaders. Have more public trials, followed by PRIVATE executions. You can't win without the native support. That's ONE thing we should've learned in Vietnam.

Answer 9

I think this is the hardest war we have ever fought, because the enemy wants to die, they don't care if they and and they have no rules when it comes to fight and at the same time the US is wieghed down with all these rules, its like the soldiers are fighting with one hand tided behind there back.
what i can't believe is the amount of people in the us who think we shouldn't be in this war. if we were not the radicals would become stronger, they would kill more people and we would have more terorist attacks. the insane liberals hate george bush more than then the people who would cut off their heads if given the chance. it just bogols the mind that people would think that way.
we cannot set a date to get out of there, then the terorists would now that they just had to wiat untill that date. we have to increase the number of troops, we have to fight with out one hand tided behind our back.

Answer 10

There is no simple question and my understanding of politics is limited to my own point of view, but, as the wife of an active military man, I feel we have already lost. We lost when this war became (as you said) not against an "enemy army" but, in my opinion, against a radically different reilgion.

Sadly, there is not quick fix for religious fervor and bloodshed. That's what happens when world leaders try to play "God".