Time to Get Out of Iraq (RINO ALERT)

Townhall ^ | 08/15/2005 | Armstrong Williams

[frankiep]

Even Stars & Stripes is a piece of leftist propaganda these days

Unfortunately you are absolutely correct. And it isn't only confined to Stars & Stripes. AFN radio, with it's airing of NPR for almost the entire day is sickening. And don't even get me started on the fact that every single morning AFN radio airs a 5 minute psychotic rant by Jim Hightower. I can't listen to any of the crap they play, with the exceptioin of the whopping one hour a day of Rush Limbaugh, without wanting to put my fist through my radio.

[Reader of news]

Meanwhile, the deterioration of Iraq continues, serving as a sad reminder of the failed promise of this mission, and the need to pull out.

Firstly, the mission in Iraq is a succeeding: massive vote last January, high enlistment in the Iraqi forces, the Constitution about to be presented, etc.

And secondly, the troops should pull out when Iraq can defend itself. If the troops leave before it has been achieved, Iraq will became a harbor for terrorists as it was before the liberation or as Afghanistan was under the Taliban.

[Milligan]

Really? I do not see that on TV. All I see is the violence and burnt cars. I don't see people at the market or going to the culture events. Is there a stock market? Do planes fly out of Baghdad Airport? To me that's normalization. But all I see is the horrors of the war and the American support is fading. If we do send a pro-war news group over there it gets labeled as propaganda by the left. But they are doing the same thing.

I don't think this war is going to be fought by soldiers...it's going to be average citizens like you and me. I'll try my best. We have to win.

[Sloth]

You cannot lead in a global democracy, if people do not trust you.

Since when are we trying to lead a "global democracy"?

[ohioman]

No, he is a pice of shit. We are at War and anyone instigating toward losing a war should shut up or get out of the way.

Really, he emboldens our enemies. F*** 'em.

[MikefromOhio]

Is there a stock market? Do planes fly out of Baghdad Airport?
Airplanes flying out of BIAP? Yep. I remember a story on FR that they had 114 flights a day just a few weeks ago.

I am not so sure of a stock market, but I am 100% sure there is a commodities market of some sort....

[MikefromOhio]

Oh I get it. If someone decides to think for himself, and ends up disagreeing with the "official" Republican position on some issue, then he's a RINO.

Not necessarily a RINO, but wrong in this case....REALLY wrong.

[nosofar]

We're playing with fire. It's unclear to me if Iraq has the values, the willpower and the initiative to survive and thrive as a free and prosperous people.

Good post.

[nosofar]

Over 4000 were killed on motorcycle's in this country last year for absolutely nothing.

What would be more interesting to me is how many soldiers were killed in training exercises, etc. Over the same course of time as we've been in Iraq and compare that. In other words, how many would have died if none of this (Iraq) had ever happened?

[nosofar]

As Iraq moves forward with its constitution (on which the citizens get to vote in October), with the election of its leaders in December and other milstones in which the people are empowered, the progress will be so evident that the media simply won't be able to cover it up anymore.

The elections will be ignored and rightly so. Even the Soviet Union had 'elections'. What we need to see are people going about their lives normally, children going to school, and Iraqi police handling security. I would hope Iraqis would be shamed by the example of Israel and the 'hated Jews' having more stomach to stand up against terrorists than Muslims.

[TomasUSMC]

We lost more combat troops in the battle for Iwo Jima than we have lost in Iraq. Same for the Battle of the Bulge.
======
The problem with those numbers is that in WW2 we were mobilized totally for war, not like our situation today. Then we had over 8,000,000 SOLDIERS, in March 1945 not counting men currently in training as replacements, approximately 500,000, who would eventually join combat units .... that was just the army.

Today current 484,000 soldiers is 17 times less. Not only that but today we don't have a reliable constant flow of recruits without the draft. In WW2 we did. We have a war of attrition going on but we are trying to fight it with a small military. Thus we have loses that historically are low but proportionally are causing us to stretch our forces to such an extent that over 40 percent of our forces in Iraq are Reserves!

This is the problem, that with the volunteer military, we will not be able to continue this war of attrition. Lets not be lulled by the 1850 kia number either. Total evacs from Iraq including sick, wounded and dead is over 20,000

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_casualties.htm

Now I don't support waging this
- kinder gentler compassionate teddybears-for-terrorists, bullet magnet patrolling Syrian/Iranian sanctuary allowing Vietnam redux war of attrition, but if thats the way our President Bush wants to skin the cat, thats the way it will be done and we had better have a large enough military and long enough patience for it.

[SierraWasp]

"Living in Iraq right now takes guts."

Yes, of course it does, however, so does everyday living and commuting here in America. A recent study indicated that routine work-a-day commuting was four times more deadly that combat. The combat statistics they used were in wars previous to the current one.

Interesting, don't you think?