Will We Win The War in Iraq With Conventional Weapons?

Question

Boeing's profits increased 61 %. Lockweed Martin, 22%. Northrop Grumman 62%. The Pentagon now uses up half of the discretionary budget, and Arms Manufacturers are making a killing!

"As Columbia professor Richard K. Betts points out in Foreign Affairs magazine: "With rare exceptions, the war against terrorists cannot be fought with army tank battalions, air force wings, or naval fleets—the large conventional forces that drive the defense budget. The main challenge is not killing the terrorists but finding them, and the capabilities most applicable to this task are intelligence and special operations forces. ... It does not require half a trillion dollars worth of conventional and nuclear forces."

Are we spending money unnecessarily, waging war with weapons that could be described as "overkill"? Should more funding be put into Intelligence Forces? Are we simply providing hefty profits for weapons manufacturers who are enjoying a bonanza of profit?

Answer 1

if i was one of the big shareholders of mentioned corporations why would i want this war to end? means justifies the end! in fact i would even have Bin Laden's poster in my bed room too! there is a direct and strong correlation between poverty( mental and economical) and fanaticism. the higher the number of people in poverty the higher is the number of fanatics! USA has the highest rate of fanatics among developed nations because of the same reason and it is getting worse! with the money that we are spending on war we could have ued poverty in usa and iraq and more! that is the way to defeat terrorists.spend on education, job opportunity, heath care is the only way to defea terror anywhere. the last thing you want to do is to answer terror with terror! peace

Answer 2

Well, it's been known for some time that modern conventional military forces are not the ideal choice to combat an insurgency. A fleet of F-18s is powerful, but not if they can't find 5 people hiding in a city, planting roadside bombs under cover of darkness, and otherwise blending into the population. To my knowledge, conventional force has never beaten an insurgency.

The thing is, an insurgency can't beat a conventional army either. Any insurgency that won through force (i.e. they didn't outlast the opponent into retreating, which is what many Americans are advocating: handing them a victory) had to do it by eventually adopting conventional tactics. That means they would need tanks, armor, air support, and lots of boots on the ground to make a push and takeover. I don't think it's hard to imagine with all of our military assets waiting over there, that that is impossible for them to fathom.

So consider this: so long as we provide security, and the Iraqi government works towards becoming stable and functional, the insurgents lose day by day. Over time the population will become more accepting of their government (that's the hope at least) and then it's too late for the insurgency: the people will not want their rule.

If we leave, all the work to hold elections and give them the freedom to form their own government disappears. The insurgency will take over, install another Saddam-esque leader, and then all the money you mentioned in your question becomes wasted, not to mention the many men and women serving in Iraq who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Answer 3

If we did what was necessicary and spend 3 or 4 billion on putting a bounty on the head of known terrorists, stock values wouldnt go up! :(

*Dont froget Halliburton whos stock value went up %800 since the beginning of this war! That stuff we bomb with those weapons taxpayers money paid for must be rebuilt ya know!

As long as its white americans killing muslims, we will create more terrorits wether or not who we kill is bad or good. We need to fund muslims to do the job to get us out of the picture physically. Muslims killing muslims is normal. Armed americans isnt...

Answer 4

We'll win the conventional war...it took us only 100 days to beat the 4th largest army in the world, while they fought Iran to a draw after 8 years of war. It's the occupation and fighting insurgencies that we're not good at.....

Answer 5

Yes unless, the only weak link we have breaks, that is the people back home, the timid ones. There appear to be a lot of them lately.

Answer 6

it won't be won with weapons..it won't be "won" period. There's no way a bunch of Americans who to the Iraqi people, appear to have had everything handed to them, can come into a country and stop a holy war they have no place in.

Answer 7

that depends, do nuclear weapons count as "conventional"?

because we've had nukes longer than we've had the SAW249