Has anyone provided criteria for "winning" the war in Iraq? Is this even possible?

dogsngoat

No one has ever said what a victory would be. Until we define "victory", how will we know when we've acheived it?

Of course, not defining it allow us to always say we're winning.

Curious George

I have however; Im not running for President
It is possible to end the war.
However ending the war will provide a safe place for terrorist to only build up.

John S

Technically, we have won the war. The problem now is stabillity. We are slowly turning over Iraq to the Iraqi forces.
Don't make the mistake most Americans make in judging what we do in Iraq by American or European terms. Iraq is a much harder place that most Americans could hope to deal with. (They don't have Wal-Marts)
The logistics of getting Iraq back on track are mind-boggling, and I have to laugh at all the YA folks that think they know what America should do there.

john

War in Iraq / War on terror

If winning the war in Iraq means that the insurgents/terrorists/extremists are completely defeated, then winning may be a 'bridge too far' at the present.To stabilise the situation much more troops are required.This would not sit well with the parents whose sons/daughters are in the armed forces.Increasing inflation and the slowing global economy are factors that also afftect the war in Iraq anf the war on terror in general.With reduced earnings from trade and other sources, boosting troop numbers is not exactly practical. The abovementioned factors may also cause a rise in poverty levels.This would mean that there are a larger number of dissatisfied people.Extremist ideology would have a greater depth of penetration in such people because ,to them, there are few other options

To overcome this, the hearts and minds campaign must first be waged and won.However, this is not an easy task as the people who are executing it are often people who have faced the insurgents/terrorists/extremists have lost friends/siblings to the insurgents/terrorists/extremists.Thus, they are probably bitter ,cold and probably resonably full of hatred. These service people have fought countless engagements with no end in sight and they have not attained a victory ,whereby the insurgents/terrorists/extremists are pulling back and winding down their opertations , these potent mix of factors mean that the service people are often suspicious of the local population.They may even be openly hostile.This would casue the local population to behave likewise.This would cause a vicious cycle.

The war on terror will be a long ,drawn out and frightfully bloody war. As such it may not be entirely impossible to win but there should be changes to how it is being fought to have any hope of victory

Keith

Terror, no. We can't really win against an idea.

But for Iraq, the Bush Administration had put out like a 14 point agenda for the Iraqi Government to achieve while we try and train in the police force. I think the last report was that they had something like 5-8 of those points accomplished. Still a lot of waisted time and lives for so little political gain.

cracker jack#2

i am a harsh man when it comes to the middle east so a victory would be to supply our own oil and nuke the ones that want us dead period! sand and fire make glass!!!!

Kojak

The war in Iraq is the war on terror..... and both can be "won"
I spent 15 years of my life teaching and fighting terrorism...... It can be defeated but not with a "bigger bomb".... Magsaysay defeated the Huk terrorists.....the British SAS defeated the Malaysian terrorist.....
The secret to defeating terrorism is two fold.....
ONE..... make the price for being a terrorist or supporting a terrorist too high to pay. Terrorist speak "terror"....learn to talk their language
TWO.... Remove the terrorist support system by removing their excuses for terrorism. Terrorist can NOT exist without support from the people or another nation.....remove that support and they cease to exist. Conventional soldier laugh at the phrase "Win the hearts and minds"..... but it is the key

ERUDITE...... Iraq-Vietnam..... an easy and flawed comparison......
FIRST Iraq is the first "justified" war since 1941..... We had no business in Vietnam
SECOND The Iraqi people will fight for their freedom.....most of the Vietnamese people would not ( I was there) During the day they worked for us; during the night they worked for the communist
THIRD..... the tactical doctrine for Vietnam was wrong..... they fought an unconventional war with conventional troops and tactics.....General Petraeus has the right approach......he is doing it right and winning.
(footnote: Congratulations this post is much more "erudite" than your last messy post)

We won! 20 Jan 09 (Erudite)

The USA is using the same words and reasoning for Iraq as we did for Vietnam. (We will endure, We will win, We are killing more of the enemy than they are killing of us, the people want democracy) but we all know what happened to Vietnam. So stay tuned. Watch the USA fall. (Fail)

The Friendly Anarchist

with iraq, it's not like World War Two. You can't just point at a map and say "This is where they are." It's as unorganized as Vietnam, maybe even more. You have no clue where insurgents will strike from. True, this was the same with Vietnam, but at least we had a general idea of where the enemy was in the jungle.

Valley R

Yes, "Stay the course."

Dr Jones

From what I seen victory would be a flourishing Iraq growing kids playing in parks you know

the kind of thing you see in fairy tails

Tom

if there was a way to win that war it would have already been done by now. its going to be the same thing that happened in nam. we are going to get up an leave. i really hope we do soon because this war is a waste of America's time. we have are own war going on right here in the south. we are being invaded.

doubleolly

It is not possible to win the war in Iraq----we may win some battles------Bush declared war on "Terror"---not Iraq---and Terror is not only in Iraq but in many places in the world. What we are now doing in Iraq is--nation building---when we leave if ever, the people there will fight it out and determine who they want to govern their lives. The unstable middle east has as its problem the---Irsael -palestine conflict and until that is put to rest the whole region will be in an uproar---notwithstanding anything to the contrary.

NONAME

for Bush winning is defined as less dead Americans come home.

the reality is that a definition of "winning" is impossible because violence will always exists in this region especially with the present of Americans!!!!!

ihatelilac

Everytime a road bomb goes off and kills one of our soldiers, we kill the people living in the house next to where it went off. Because we know they saw who did it and said nothing.

liberal italienne goddessâ„¢ v1.02

Yes, the president has. But as soon as that goal is met, another one is invented as the new goal.

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