Comments Posted By B.Poster
Displaying 251 To 260 Of 397 Comments
IRAQ: THE WITHDRAWAL CLOCK IS OFFICIALLY TICKING
To date the US has not gotten it right regarding the Israeli/Arab war. Pushing for the "road map to peace" was a terrible mistake. This only rewards terrorism. If we are going to fight against Islamic terrorists, you will need to fight them every where. It makes no snese for the US and its allies to fight them in Afghanistan and Iraq but reward it in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel should be encouraged not engage in any more unilateral withdrawls. They should be encouraged to reoccupy the areas they abandoned and they should be encouraged to expand their territory from there for as long as terrorism continues against them. An expanded Israel will serve as a stronger buffer between the Western world and the Islamic terrorists who want to kill them.
Unfortunately the geo-political realities mean that such a policy cannot be pursued at this time, therefore, they have settled for a policy that the current geo-political realities will allow. They have opted to settle for a strategy that has a chance to work that they can implement. Hopefully the current strategy of trying isolate the "Palestinians" will work. It is not the optimal one but it is the best one that can be implemented at this time.
With regards to Iraq I believe we could achieve a stable Western style democracy, if we were willing to commit the necessary resources to secure the country. Then we could work to isolate the Islamic extremists parties that we mistakenly allowed to enter the political process. For better or worse, we will never know if we could have achieved a Western style Democratic Iraq. The proper amount of resources were never commited to the project fromt he start and they are not going to be now. As the top Birtish soldier recently said, our goals will have to be scaled back. As we are unwilling and perhaps unable to commit the necessary resources to Iraq to give us the optimal chance of achieving a stable Western style democratic Iraq, we will be withdrawing soon.
The strategy we will employ will be simillar to the one suggested by "Your Image Here", however, I predict some modifications to this. It is probably unrealistic to expect a full withdrawl. We will want to be flexible enough to respond, if terrorists should attempt to set up bases in the Iraqi areas we abandon. The mission will change to one that primarily uses special ops who will be based in Kurdish areas or possibly Kuwait. These forces will likely be backed up by air support. Also, an ally in Iraq, even if it is a non democratic one would be most helpful. To this end, we may try to identify a proxy that we can support against the militias but American troops will not be involved in the day to day battle against the "insurgency." I don't think they will be home by thanksgiving, however, I expect most of them to be home by Ju;y 2007. By July 2007 I look for only 10,000 or fewer American troops to be in the Iraqi region.
The strategy suggested by "Your Image Here" or the variation that I think will be implemented has a very good chance to work, IF it is properly implemented. The implementation of any strategy cannot be over stressed. If the correct policies are poorly implemented, this is every bit as bad as having bad policies that are executed flawlessly. I hope the policy changes that we will se will work because they are the ones we will get.
I think the optimal strategy for Iraq and the broader GWOT would be to combine both offense and defense. We should go on the offense against terrorists where ever they are, in Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, and "Palestine" and we should work to reform the middle east. A moratorium should be placed on immigration from Arab countries and the mosques should be closely monitored. Our borders should be secured and we should improve the enforcement of our immigration policies. It is my understanding that some of the 911 hijackers were here on expired visas. Had we simply aggressively enforced our immigration policies the 911 attacks probably could have been prevented. The optimal strategy cannot be implemented right now. The challenge of policy makers is to formulate policies that can work and that the domestic political situation, as well as the political situtions of our allies, will allow to be implemented. In other words, the optimal solution cannot always be implemented. In these cases, it would be better to do something else rather than try to implement a solution that cannot be implemented.
Finally, I wish the Iraqis all the best. I hope and pray they can achieve a Western style representative democracy.. For better or worse, unless the Aemrican and allied domestic political situations change, the Iraqis will have to do this without our help. We will be withdrawing in masse very soon. This will happen no matter who wins the elections this November.
Comment Posted By B.Poster On 15.10.2006 @ 13:44
Liberal Avenger: We have not lost yet, however, changes in strategy are needed. I think the optimal solution would be a greater commtiment of troops to Iraq but for a variety of reasons this is not going to happen. As such, any changes in strategy cannot include more troops.
While you are correct that if we fail in Iraq the world will not end, however, it will make winning the GWOT more difficult. If we succeed in establishing an allied and stable Iraqi government, the war will not have been a mistake, however, if we fail it will have been.
Dale: Interesting post. You discuss giving the NVA/VC time to win the propaganda war. Had we have planned for the phase of the war that came after removing the former Iraqi government better I think it is unlikely that we would find ourselves in the position we currently find ourselves in.
In any event, the US will be exiting Iraq in masse very soon. By July 2007 there will be 10,000 troops or fewer in Iraq. These will be primarily special forces who will be backed up by air support and they will be based in Kurdish areas. They will be prepared to intervene in the Iraqi Civil war as necessary to prevent the formation of terrorist bases. Any US battling of "insurgents" by the US will be done by proxies. I'm sure part of the work of the Iraq Study Group will be to try and identify proxy groups within Iraq that we can work with. I hope the new strategy works because it is the one we will get. This is my prediction. If it turns out to be wrong, I will admit it.
Comment Posted By B.Poster On 14.10.2006 @ 10:34
Andy
By the Psy ops campaign I was referring to the defeatist attitude expressed by the media of that time. The Vietnam war is actually before my time, so my use of the term is based on what people who lived through the era described to me.
I agree with you that in the final analysis whether or not the insurgency can be defeated will be up to the Iraqis. Also, whether or not Iraq can achieve a stable democracy will largely be up to the Iraqis and not us. As you point out, we can help them along. One way to do this would be to commit more troops to provide security, however, we probably don't have the troops and even if we did we lack the national will to commit them. As such, at this time, more troops for Iraq is out of the question. In any event, any help we provide them with will have to be without the use of American troops, as we will be withdrawing soon.
Comment Posted By B.Poster On 14.10.2006 @ 00:18
During Vietnam our enemies learned that even if they could not win any battles in the field that a psy ops campaign directed against the Aemrican people can be successful, however, it must be stressed that we never would have gotten to this point had we planned better for the phase of the war that came after the former Iraqi government was removed from power.
Comment Posted By B.Poster On 13.10.2006 @ 23:41
COULD FORDHAM BE SOURCE FOR EMAILS?
Foley has resigned in disgrace. He is gone and this is a good thing for the country. It seems Dennis Hastert and the House leadership knew about this and did not do enough to act. At a minimum, Hastert should resign. We expect or should expect much better of our elected representatives than they have have given us. It seems the House leadership knew about this. A complete investigation needs to be done on this and the chips should be allowed to fall where they may. In any event, the Republican party, as it currently is, is unworthy of the positions they currently hold and I expect the voters to vote them out of office this November. When this happens, they have no one to blame but themselves. They fully deserve to lose.
Rank and file Republicans would do much better, if they would simply own up to the mistakes of the leaders and purge them from their midst, however, I don't expect them to do this. This would require a level of integrity that they don't seem to possess.
Comment Posted By B.Poster On 5.10.2006 @ 17:46
THE WEBSITE THAT STARTED IT ALL - STRANGE BUT TRUE
This really should not be about politics. It really should be about protecting children. If someone, like CREW, had this information and knew that a sexual predator was loose for months and did not act on it they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If former Rep Foley is guilty and it appears he is, he will be prosecuted tot he fullest extent possible. If House leadership are proven to have known about this, they should be prosecuted as well. While it should not be about politics it probably will be. Btw, if the Republicans are proven to have covered for this guy, they are virtually guaranteed to lose the House and the Senate and they should.
Comment Posted By B.Poster On 1.10.2006 @ 14:19
FOLEY MATTER PROVES REPUBLICANS SUPPORT PERVERTS
DrMajorBob (147)
You are right. We have never tried to fight a major war while cutting taxes at the same time. The bottome line is you are not going to be able to fight a war on multiple fronts, cut taxes, and run a quasi wel-fare state all at the same time. We are borrowing at an incredible rate. This needs to stop.
I suggest suspending the tas cuts, instituting a draft, amd placing the country on a war footing like in WWII. The best use of the troops we add to the military would be for border seccurity or for Afghanistan. As long as it is consistent with American national security, I would like to commit more troops to Iraq as well but at this stage I'm not sure a massive commitment of troops to Iraq is in our national security interests.
Comment Posted By B.Poster On 1.10.2006 @ 02:07
DrMajorBob
I find myself in agreement with what you wrote. We are going to need to be more intellegent. Specifically concerning Iraq I think we should not have ivaded when we did. If we were going to do it, we should have used far more troops than we did. With that said about thirty nations evaluated the threat and agreed with us that it needed to be done and agreed to assist us in some way. Also, Kuwait and Jordan allowed the use of their territory to launch the invastion.
As I point out elsewhere, due to the domestic political situation the United States will be withdrawing in masse from Iraq very soon. By July of 2007 all that will be left there will be about 10,000 or so mostly special ops forces who will be stationed in Kurdistan. These will be backed up by air support and will be prepared to intervene in Iraq to try and prevent the formation of terrorist bases. An intellegent use of the forces this will free up will be to commit them to Afghanistan. In addition the US should substantially increase the size of its military. These forces could be used in Afghanistan. Lets take care of the situation in Afghanistan. You are spot on that we will need to be more intellegent in how we are doing this.
I agree with you that we don't want to make the same mistakes that we made during WWII with internment. Right now we are no where a situation where something like that would happen nor are we any where near the harsh interrogation techniques sometimes used in some past wars. With that said some of the things we are doing right now make me uncomfortable. This is part of the soul searching we do that our enemies do not do.
Lesley
Former Rep Foley and his collagues should be investgted thouroghly and they will be, however, DrMajorBob is correct. The issues he mentions are for more important than the Foley situation. Rep Foley and and any one who covered for him should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, however, it should not be a campaign issue. It should be about bringing a pervert and anyone who covered for him to justice. Actually former rep Foley and anyone who covered for him should be ashamed of themselves not only for their twisted behaviour but they have distracted the country at a very serious time.
Comment Posted By B.Poster On 1.10.2006 @ 01:58
Salty
I've said over and over again, if any of the accused Republicans are proven guilty of aiding and abetting a pedophile they should go to jail. At least I think your post was directed at me. You will get no defense of this behavior from me.
Comment Posted By B.Poster On 30.09.2006 @ 22:10
Bobby
During the Civil War Abraham Lincoln suspended Habeus Corpus for a time. During WWII the government engaged in domestic spying and Japanese were interned. I'm not saying these things were the right thing to do. Any intrusions on civil liberties are tame today compared with WWII.
I don't sense any free floating panic. What I do sense is many Americans including those in the leadership ranks of the Republican and Democratic parties have yet to fully come to grips with the size and the scope of the enemy.
Comment Posted By B.Poster On 30.09.2006 @ 22:06
