Can the Republican Party Recover From Iraq?

The Wall Street Journal ^ | March 21, 2013 | PEGGY NOONAN

[DH]

and others labeled “crazy” around here.

---

I’ve been around here so long that I think I’m going sane!

;-)

[MinorityRepublican]

To be fair, President Bush and the Republicans made use of their “second chance” in Iraq....the troop surge of ‘07 won the war.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”To be fair, President Bush and the Republicans made use of their “second chance” in Iraq....the troop surge of ‘07 won the war.”

To be fair Bush claimed ‘stay the course’ for two years while things got worse and worse and only after GOP losing 2006 midterms goes to the new Dem congress demanding $$ for the surge. May have planning on doing it after the election no matter what.

Like that wasnt going to be seen through (outside of talk radio world which was ga-ga for these back in those days).

Speaking of winning, what did we win?
Oil?
Military Bases?
A military ally?

[Last of the Mohicans]

Regardless of whether it was truly earned by Bush or not, the Iraq War has been, is, and forever will be known as Bush’s War. The media has seen to that.

[Servant of the Cross]

Conservatives usually form their own opinions, which are most likely 180 degrees from the rot pushed by the state run media.

[MinorityRepublican]

Speaking of winning, what did we win?

We eliminated tens of thousands of radical Islamic Extremists in the Middle East. We killed Saddam Hussein and his sons. We unleashed the Arab Spring in which dictators throughout the region toppled.

[Political Junkie Too]

I still believe that the Iraq War could have been over a lot sooner if Colin Powell had not lost the use of Turkey as a northern base just weeks before the start of the war.

We could have forced Iraq to fight a two-front war and squeezed them into the middle. Instead, we had to redeploy our forces to Basra and ceded the north to Husssein, who was able to use the time to convoy his WMD's to Syra and flee Baghdad.

-PJ

[MinorityRepublican]

The invasion phase went well. Perhaps, Bremer was wrong to dismantle the Ba’ath political infrastructure in Iraq. That forced broke Sunni soldiers to join the insurgency.

[Political Junkie Too]

I think it went well enough, given the circumstances. But we gave Hussein the entire north to retreat to. It would have gone very differently had we been able to push from the south and the north. He'd have had nowhere to go except west towards Syria and Saudi Arabia.

-PJ

[MinorityRepublican]

Syria wouldn’t take Saddam in....however, he might hide among the population (majority Sunni)

[Delta Dawn]

We didn’t win the Iraq war???

Who was that hanging from a rope?

[MinorityRepublican]

[sickoflibs]

RE :”We eliminated tens of thousands of radical Islamic Extremists in the Middle East. We killed Saddam Hussein and his sons. We unleashed the Arab Spring in which dictators throughout the region toppled. “

We spent tons of $$$ and lives knocking out Iran's closest-most-threatening enemy and we didn't even get a military base there in return.

We got Obama more trusted on national security than the GOP is.

That spells DISASTER!

[MinorityRepublican]

Why do we need a military base in Iraq when we have Kuwait and aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf?

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Bingo.

The GOP has utterly lost sight of what it is.

Pro-American. Pro-freedom. And Pro-rights.

We import from China. We sell supposed support for gay rights, and we ban with the best of ‘em.

STOP IT.

Stand firm GOP. For American jobs. For American rights.

For America.

[Servant of the Cross]

Victor Davis Hanson forever. Dame Peggy the old dowager never.