When, how, and under what circumstances will the Iraq war end?

Question

Of course, no one knows for sure,,,, but, do you have guess - educated or not? I'd really like to know how people envision this war ending. Can you think of anyone capable enough to devise a strategy? Who might that be? Thanks for your opinions.

Joe B.... I Share your concerns.

Well, I asked for opinions.... and got them. Insightful and interesting opinions.... many of which I totally agree with. A few, of course, I didn't agree with.... but, I believe it always pays to consider another person's point of view. You can never tell when someone will add a new and brilliant dimension to what you already know.... and....Bingo! You've learned something! (I believe the "kids" would insert LOL right about here.) Anyway, it seems I've created a bit of a "quagmire".... for myself, that is. Since there is no RIGHT answer to this question, and quite a few great opinions.... which should be chosen as BEST answer?Hopefully, you will all understand why I chose the one I (finally) did.... after reading each one several times, I might add. Every answer was truly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time.

Old Sal.... Are you my sister?

madpol.... enlightening AND entertaining ... as usual.

lochmessy... Sad, but, I believe true.

Death From Above..... Not sure Iraq grasps the idea of Democracy..... Iran... predominantly Shiite... inflexible leaders... et al. You're right. It's scary. You seem very knowledgeable.

Noah..... I agree..... not 100%, but with much of what you say.

Krytox.... Iraq military seems so immobile to me. The moral obligation is indeed with us.

G man.... The Dems seem to be as immobile as the Iraqi military, but who knows?

scubasteve..... You really think so?

Joan..... Ron Paul has ideas - needs more backing. He's worth a look.

Scozbo.... See now. Boredom never occurred to me.

Answer 1

I am a Conservative guy, voted for Bush both times, and see this war ending badly. In the end, I do not believe that we will be succesful in changing one of the oldest cultures on earth and establishing a stable Democracy. It may be cynical, but I think that we will finally be faced with leaving and just having to let these people to kill each other until an equilibrium has been reached. I DO NOT believe that there will be peace in the MIddle East in my lifetime. I am betting that there will be a Democratic President next term, and that they will just pull out and leave the region to implode on itself. I'm not a fan of Left wing politics, but I'm not too sure that this is not unavoidable anyway. I just want the 2 sons I have there to get home alive.

Answer 2

There's no natural stopping place for this war...mainly because it's not a war....it's an occupation. To get the right answer you have to ask the right question. The right question is how long can the US pump a billion borrowed dollars a day into an enterprise that has reached an equilibrium....no improvement, no advancement? The Iraqi resistance can stay in business pretty much forever at a very low cost per fighter. To keep US forces in the field has already crossed the cost/benefit event horizon. Politically the occupation is losing steam.....to paraphrase John Kerry in his assessment of the Vietnam situation..."How can you ask a politician to be the last man politically killed in a failed war?" The only solution is to totally change the equation...that means totally abandoning the middle east and stop importing any oil from there. If needed we can still track down any 'terrorists'..that's just good security and international police work....a concept denigrated by the Bush administration from day one, yet is still valid and workable. Don't worry about the 19% of the oil we get from the middle east. The world is awash in oil and there's always 21st century technology should anyone have the political will go in that direction.

Answer 3

When?: After Bush leaves or is forcibly extracted from the White House in 2009.

How?: Through a grudging agreement among the factions that no one is going to be happy with but all can live with and the expulsion or destruction of Foreign Terrorists by Religious Militias and Tribal Vigilantes.

Under what circumstances?: Over the dead bodies of Islamic Terrorists, Oil Sheikhs, Christian Dominionists and Big Business--all of whom have their own reasons to hate and fear Democracy.

Maliki has said on several occasions that Iraqis can take it from here. I believe him. Iraqis are fed up with the war. Once the Coalition troops are out of the way, there will be a brief bloodbath, followed by a prolonged, "I hate you, but other people hate us more, and we're going broke," sort of peace.

Answer 4

I envision two ways.

1. The most palatable and least likely to happen is that the situation on the ground continues to get better, political reconciliation occurrs, the Iraqi military steps up and we gradually draw down our forces

2. The Dems either cease funding for the war or get a bill through that authorizes the retreat from Iraq.

Answer 5

I don't see it ending at all under the Bush administration. He will keep it going and will push more and more and add more and more people to make this a bloody mess, he will leave it as as a total mess knowing that the next president will have to do all the dirty work to clean up what is there, and he pretty much knows that he has made it so that the next president will in most likelyhood be a democrat. There will be nothing to do, but to try and pull out with as much dignity as we can, but what will be left will be a blood bath. There are three different muslim tribes that can not live together under any circumstances. We will have to leave some American troops over there to try and keep the calm, but I don't know how many and without a war waging I don't know if our few troops will be enough. A democrat president will end the war, as a war, but the war will continue over there as there is no strong leader as Saddam has been removed, thanks to us, and there is nobody to fill his shoes. It will continue to be a bloody mess, but we will be out of it and they will coninue to kill each other. The democrat president will take the blame, coming from Bush, who will say, If I were president I could have wrapped up all this mess and it would have ended peacefully, which is all a bunch of b..ll. But that's the way he has set it up. This is a no win situation. It has been compared to Viet Nam. However in Viet Nam, when we pulled out we knew we were leaving with a head of north Viet Nam who would push on through to South Viet Nam and take over and there would be one country, yes it would be communist, but it would be with a government.
Here there will be no government, just anarchy.
But to answer your question, we will pull out under the next administration, with the agreement of the house and the senate.

Answer 6

While I am for what we are trying to do in Iraq, I now have a terrible feeling that things are going to end very badly.

As soon as the U.S. leaves the country will fall apart. I don't see a country like that ever getting over their internal fighting.

I hope I'm wrong, but everything points that way - if you can believe what we hear from the news media - which is always suspect. They seem to play up the bad things because it makes for better "news."

Answer 7

2009

Kurds establish de facto country and stay out of the mess south of their borders (de facto because of the Turks who will not tolerate a declared sovereign state). Sunnis and Shi'i come to grudging agreement to coexist in a *cold peace*. There will be sporadic violence, but not nearly on a scale we see now. Foreign operatives will be purged by Shi'i militia. Since they will not go of their own accord, they will have to be chased out of the country or killed. We will *disengage* and *fall back*, that means withdraw most troops but leave significant assets in Kuwait. We will declare victory first and congratulate iraqis on the glorious new country they inherited from us.
It will be a blow to house of Saud, destabilizing it even further, and a slap in the face for the neo-cons who orchestrated the war. The spin put on this political-military circus we will witness will be simple - Democracy has gained a foothold in the Middle East because of our efforts. A short bloodletting will follow our withdrawal which will determine who are the major players in the post-occupation Iraq. Uneasy cold peace between factions will follow. The saddest part is that we facilitated victory of Iran in Iraq. Something Iran could have never accomplish without our help. We have never bothered to learn from Brits' experience in Iraq in 1920s. As Santayana said: those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

Answer 8

2 ways, we leave in a hurry...and be ready for a genocide like in African or Bosnia...or we stay long enough to give the Iraq military time to come up to speed and take over the responsibilities of security in the country, which in turn would allow for politics to take their course, aka political reconciliation etc...

this last one can NOT happen there as long as people there are worry on even basic things as survival from bombings sectarian warfare, etc


hey remember the phrase "you break it you own it", we have now the moral obligation to stay there until it is fix...since we broke it!

Answer 9

When Ron Paul is elected in 2008--he will take care of our troops, he will bring them home and permit the Iraqis to get their house in order.

Answer 10

Ghost Busting out there.
In nailing the dead mummy back into the coffin.
Luke 24.44-45, 47-49
"The Spoils of the war" is already in hands.
Joshua 7.11