If the US ultimately has to leave Iraq sometime over the next 2 years how is anybody going to know:...........

Question

-If it was a loss?
-If it was a victory?
-If it was a draw?
-If it was a cut & run?
-If it was a redeployment?
-If it was a withdraw?
-If it was Bush's fault?
-If it was the Dems/libs fault?
-If by removing Saddam & making sure there were no WMDs it was a victory?

The whole thing is such a monumental mess that I don't think anybody really wins or loses anything except the US troops who were killed.

Answer 1

Guess you need to ask the "Einsteins" who came up with the lack-o-strategy for the whole quagmire

Answer 2

Well, you can judge it against what would have happened had the US not invaded Iraq in the first place. Of course it is impossible to know what would have happened if the US hadn't invaded, and you'll get different guesses from different people (for example some right wingers will probably swear that if we hadn't invaded Iraq scores of terrorists would have attacked the US.) However I think:

That it is very likely that in the final analysis that America will lose a significant amount of credibility, anger a great many people in the middle east, spend enormous amounts of money and get many thousands of people killed for no good reason. Thus you can probably toss it into the loss column.

I do feel pretty strongly that Bush is ultimately responsible for the decision to invade Iraq-- if Al Gore had been president we simply wouldn't be there now. A great many Democrats were guilty of moral cowardice for supporting the war because they believed it would hurt their re-election chances if they didn't, but they aren't responsible for the war.

While Dems will make more noise about getting the US out of Iraq, I suspect that the catalyst for finally withdrawing the troops will be the Republicans realizing that they have no chance of winning the '08 election if US troops are still in Iraq. Clearly the US as a whole has turned against the war and no political party will be responsible for getting us out-- just politicians doing what they think will win favor for them in the next election.

Is it cut and run? You can debate this endlessly (you can debate what cut and run means endlessly).

While removing Saddam was a good thing, the US has been unable to create a government capable of bringing the Iraqis together. Replacing tyranny with civil war, which I suspect is what will happen, may turn out to not be much of a victory.

Answer 3

I think it was a victory when we removed Saddam as a threat. If we had left Iraq in ruins (Stone Age). Might have been a double victory.

So we won the first war to get rid of Saddam.

The second war started out as a way to lure terrorist into Iraq so our military could kill them off. That has worked pretty good until we decided to build a nation.

The third war to create an Iraqi republic still goes on. I think we have a better than even chance to succeed at least temporarily on that front. However, I don't believe there is any love of freedom and tolerance in the middle east. I think like the greek philosophers said people don't want to be free they just want a just ruler.

Answer 4

Well Bush is the decider, if he decides its a loss it is a loss
If he decides it was a victory it was a victory
If he decides it was a draw it was a draw
You must be a Democrat, they want to Cut & Run.
Its not a redeployment nor will it ever be called that it is a troop surge
Withdraw? Yup definately a Democrat, why not give victory a chance?
Nothing is Bushs fault, in fact he is the best President ever and deserves to be on Mount Rushmore
Everything is the Democrats/Liberals fault, dont you watch you Fox News?
Oh so you think it was okay that he gassed and tortured his own people is what you are saying?

Answer 5

Doing whatever is necessary to win is the only way to justify the investment in lives and money that we have made. Pulling out is not the way to demonstrate power. Those in Congress that want to quit should be thrown out. If they want to do something let them come up with a plan for victory otherwise shut up and work on positive things like stopping the illegal immigrants and controlling health care cost.

Answer 6

It will be to some, what the propagandists say. (Fox, Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter& O'Reilly)

Hermann Goering, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister said; “Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger”.

Answer 7

Well that's a good question. It also strikes at the heart of the debate. Truth is we probably won't know. Whether or not 160,000 American soldiers are in Iraq makes no difference to the sectarian violence. With or without us they will still eb slaughtering each other to please Allah. So why not just get hell out. It's obviously unwinnable.

Answer 8

It will be debated for generations to come...