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Originally posted by Spanky
When I look at a policy decision the way I judge it is are we better off than we were before. In this case I would say yes.
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Spanky, I love ya like the only furball CA Republican I've known, but you've gotta be kidding me. It doesn't strike you as the
least bit disingenous to ignore what happens when we leave?
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1) The Iraqis are definitely better off than they were before. As explained above
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Let's set aside the arguments that others have had on this topic. Assume this is so -- it would be so
because we are there. We leave, it creates a big freakin' vacuum, and the various factions break out the big knives, each supported by their own wacko sponsor neighbor country. No so sure the Iraqis would consider, or care, about this "better off" analysis, because their lives will turn to shit.
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2) With minmum casualties (for the families involved in the deaths are tragic but 2,000 dead is almost nothing. We lost 2,000 men in the first ten seconds of Iwo Jima or D-Day. In Korea we would lose 2,000 men just to take a hill) we got rid of a major enemy of the United States.
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I presume you're alluding to US lives lost to date. I'm not focusing on that -- I'm talking about what will happen when we leave. I think we're talking past each other here.
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3) Our prestige increased significantly. As a wise man said - it is better to feared than loved. Whether someone loves you is beyond your control but whether or not they fear you is within your control. Love is a fickle emotion that is unstable fear sticks like glue. Taking out Iraq in three weeks with so little casualites made the whole world realize they really don't want to get into an armed conflict with us. We had lost a lot of crediblity when we didn't enforce the Gulf War peace treaty. Now all the credibility is back.
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Dissent. We've demonstrated not only that we can not only knock over a popsicle stand, but smash it to bits. A good skill to have, certainly, and it would instill fear.
Our inability to rebuild said popsicle stand, however, does not = "prestige."
Also, watching us get completely ensnared in trying to govern, then get the fuck out, of Iraq has emboldened Iran and NK to tell us to go screw ourselves, as they know quite well that we don't have a brigade to spare. This is credibility?
