Posted on 06/13/2014 4:45:13 PM PDT by Nachum
In 2007, President George W. Bush warned that if America withdrew prematurely from Iraq, American troops would eventually have to return: To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready … would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda. It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we’d allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It would mean increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is
(Excerpt) Read more at aei-ideas.org ...
“McCain would declare war with Narnia, Pandora, and The Matrix if he could.”
And he would eagerly accept photo ops with Sauron to push those wars.
The Iraqis were routinely firing missiles at our pilots before the United States invaded. Every missile fired by the Iraqis was act of war and it would have been irresponsible for Bush not to give the go ahead to invade Iraq - particularly since our repeated failures to respond to acts of war by Al Qaeda had led to 9/11.
They’ll give you the Rev. Jeremiah Wright speech. You know the one, ‘the chickens have come home to roost’, ‘God Damn America’.
It’s preordained.
A person doesn't need to be a diplomat or scholar to understand this. We left forces in Germany and S. Korea for DECADES to deter aggression. When you remove the deterent, you invite invasion.
We should not have allowed the Iraqis to run their own country until they showed they were willing to do so in cooperation with one another.
The first Gulf War was a success because George H. W. Bush was able to get a truly international team together around a clear objective (free Kuwait) and then honored and respected the coalition by ending the war as soon as that goal was accomplished.
Every historian, military strategist, and political theorist with any brains told us that Iraq was a basket case. That without a very strong and vicious leader like Saddam keeping them in check, the citizens would soon be at each others throats. That is exactly what happened.
The international community didn't support the Iraq War because they were smart enough to know that it was going to ultimately fail. Especially since everyone knew that the only long term solution was a dictatorship as determined as Saddam's maybe without so much senseless murder and torture.
Because Bush knew that he wasn't getting any international support, and because Bush was unwilling to implement a military dictatorship, he guaranteed failure from the outset.
The neocons were way too optimistic about the prospects for a "free" Iraq. Either that or they were just whispering sweet nothings into Bush's ears so that their war profiteer buddies could collect their unjust rewards.
George W had a pretty big coalition.
How many nations signed on?
We got token amounts of troops from the few nations that we could cajole/bribe into working with us. Most of those troops were in the back in support positions.
I think the only semi-major support was from the British and that was under 10,000 troops. Most of the other nations joined in hopes of getting an invite into NATO, a military base to generate jobs for the local economy, etc.
It was a truly sad coalition in comparison to what his father was able to put together for the first Gulf War.
I think the number in support was about 49.
Is that your figure?
Hey Dubya. I was warning this would happen BEFORE we went into Iraq.
“American troops would eventually have to return”
Not to worry.
Russia, China and Iran are rushing to fill the void.
Democrats have, once again, thrown victory to America’s enemies.
Yes I am sure you are right, they are nomads and heathens besides, nothing means anything to them
The mighty coalition included such military strongholds as the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau and the Solomon Islands.
I believe that besides the US, only the UK and Poland actually had fighting troops. The rest were used in support.
Also it seems that a huge chunk of the military activities were fought by contractors, i.e. mercenaries.
I believe that the Romans had to increasingly depend on mercenaries to keep their empire afloat.
"Shortly before the Iraq war began, the US government announced that 49 countries were joined in a "coalition of the willing" in favor of forcibly removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, with some number of other countries expressing their support in private. Of the 49 countries, the following countries had an active or participant role, by providing either significant troops or political support: Australia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and (United States).
Four of these countries supplied combat forces directly participating in the invasion of Iraq: the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland. Other countries have provided logistical and intelligence support, chemical and biological response teams, overflight rights, humanitarian and reconstruction aid, and political support."
The bush war in Iraq was a huge success.
We removed saddam in short order.
We won the surge.
It is our anti military intellectual culture that finds allies on the right and left that literally kills us all.
Americans voted in 2008 to leave Iraq in shame. The vacation from reality will end. The anti Americans are rallying everywhere and will hit us hard again.
When our military is supported we win.
When it is not supported we lose.
It’s that simple.
That's a response that merits ignoring everything you posted after that point. You had a dictator routinely firing missiles at our pilots and your response is 'Regardless.'
Nice.
I know that is tough for you to understand, but that's what the general understanding was before the first Gulf War.
There were lots of arguments about what we should do and whether we should go in to protect a country that seemed from our perspective as a bunch of rich fascists bossing around their foreign workers.
We only went in after the president and his staff convinced congress and the people that we would go in, free Kuwait, and then get the heck out.
A few years later, like the schmucks we sometimes are, we completely forgot about exit strategies, etc. and just went in anyway. All we had was some fairy tale story about how all humans yearned in their hearts for peace and freedom.
Complete camel diarrhea.
So a few pilots were shot at. That's horrible. Instead thousands of servicemen died so that Iraqis could be free from the threat of being killed by Saddam, and now free to be killed by Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish militias.
However horrible and tragic it was for pilots to get shot at with little effect, it is even more tragic to see what is going on there now.
“I believe that besides the US, only the UK and Poland actually had fighting troops. The rest were used in support.”
Well, you would be very wrong in that assumption. The El Savs, Romanians, Bulgarians and Mongolians all fought well when called on. The EL Savs provided route security for convoys outside US areas and they were exceptional at it.
The El Savs were the soldiers who routed the Mahdi in Najaf in 3 months of house-to-house fighting. The 3rd AD and air assets supported them but much of the up close and personal fighting was done by the El Savs. They were extremely aggressive against insurgents.
So did everyone with two functioning synapses in their brain.
5.56mm
No New Nation Building. (I think I’m turning into an isolationist)
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