The Iraq War...what do you realistically see as a win at this point?

NAZGUL

Why do people think that the violence will ever stop? Are they just that naive?

p_l_gray

The military objectives have been accomplished. In the regard the "war" is over. Maintaining peace in an insurgency is a different animal altogether.

If we learned any lesson from Viet Nam it's that politicians should not be allowed to direct a war from Washington.

Colter B

We cannot win this war, we never were able to. You cannot fight a guerrilla force with a conventional army and win. We saw that in the Soviet-Afghan conflict. We cannot lose because we have so many resources at our disposal. We cannot give up for fear of another terror attack and they will not give up because they have a religious obligation to kill us. There is no victory in sight, there is no loss in sight, there is no end in sight. One group will get tired of fighting eventually, we will be peaceful for a few years, someone will blow something up, we will start again. There is no way to stop it without one side being totally destroyed.

nukehoop

First of all, most wars are fought with a known enemy. In Iraq, our troops are trying to find a wolf in sheeps clothing hidden among the sheep. Our troops need to come home now. They are being mercilessly slaughtered, and for what? For Whom? A lot of the people there do not give a crap about USA. It is time for the Iraqi people to control their own destiny!

Sam

Depends what you define as a win. If you mean win the war against Saddam's Republican army..yes US won. If you mean the overall objective which was to control world's oil fields in the name of democracy...yes. If you mean do all of the above and not have any of your men get killed...no.

Chalie..you dumb f..k...you haven't finished this war and you wanna start another one with a country much more powerful than Iraq under saddam??? Besides, the best place to bomb would be your house to get rid of idiots.

bigsey93manny24

We will win when the violence stops and insurgents are not a threat to Iraqi civilians.

Golden

none of my business. us government press the airlines to national service, ...massive airlift.

BRING THEM HOME!

azaxel1

We've already won. We are simply waiting for the Iraqi government to take control of the country. They keep putting it off because we aren't applying political pressure to them. So even if the violence stopped, we'd still be there waiting. That's how our troops are getting killed. They aren't getting killed from going out and fighting. They are getting killed by standing around, guarding what we've already taken control of.

The war was already won a few years ago. We are now just in the process of stabilizing a country who lost it's entire government. And that doesn't happen overnight

Devil

America is loosing the war on Iraq.The reason to invade Iraq is to control the Oil resources.If US transfers the control to the Iraq politicians before taking control of oil resources it has to forget the 1 trillion $ investment and their soldiers sacrifice on behalf of this.

I could see few have answered America has already won the war.It is not true.You can say they have won only after taking full control of the country and establish themselves in the occupied country .They have done neither of them.
America is loosing the war.

wishiwas

A win anytime soon is unlikey. But withdrawal is not possible either.
We must stick it out until the Iraq army can take over the action and even then we still need to be there in limited numbers.
No one is happy about this war. Not President Bush nor the soliders. But its one that must be played through without withdrawal.

bushonlysubmale

Unconditional surrender of all terrorists and the security of our oil resources with a government with no ties to Iran and 100% pro-American.

denster1991

If stop we can continue to help rebuild the Iraqi government and economy. If we can help rebuild them they will be another non threatening country to US. When the insurgents are eliminated we can continue the strategy. We help rebuild the country we took out because of the result of WWI cause a radicalist like Hitler to use the treaty of versai to rally support for WW ll. But if we help the country after the conflict there to say no bad blood after the battles

nigelshiftright

somebody tell these fools that the Iraqi "insurgents" ARE the Iraqi citizens.

Magdalene

I highly recommend that you read this article..."The War as We Saw It."

It is written by 7 members of the 82nd Airborne Division who are currently stationed in Baghdad and shares their views of the political, social, religious, sectarian and ideological aspects of the war in Iraq.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19jayamaha.html?em&ex=1187755200&en=d7c043df97c7aa3e&ei=5087%0A

i'm trying

I don't see a win anytime in the future. I don't think the violence will ever stop. I say we need to bring out troops home and worry about our own country.

murrayturtle

then you people would have something else to complain about

oliveoyl163

Can we win at this point? by win I mean a stable government that is not authoritarian. Oh man.... such a short question, but it requires such a big answer. If the violence stopped tomorrow then what... well pull out of there, take care of home for little while and try not to get involved with Iran.

pacers

its a pointless place to go

B.Kevorkian

I think the best outcome we could hope for at this point would be a partition scheme.

W W D

I don't expect the violence to stop any time soon. I'd just like to see the Iraqis be able to deal with it themselves. The difference between pro- and anti-government military and paramilitary forces is not great or constant, but one would hope they'll get enough of their political s*** together to get some good out of what our troops are buying them.

tired.

really.. i think you should go to youtube and look up general patton.... he has a great strategy... ill give you the link... smart guy.. HE should run our country!!

Dan S

The violence you are talking about started in the mid 600 AD after the death of the Profit, and it has been on going every since. The US just got stupid enough to put their hands into the meat grinder.

If you define victory as peace in the Middle East then it won't happen in my children's children's lifetime. If you see victory as a stable self-governing Iraq that no longer is a harbor for Al-Quadi then that is more approachable and possible. Currently, no we donâ€™t have it. If the US left Iraq tomorrow or next year then the government we put into place would probably fall, to be eventually replaced by something like the Taliban; thatâ€™s what happened in Afghanistan. The Democrats are not fools, they know this as well, they just want to tone down our involvement so we wonâ€™t see headlines every night with the death of more soldiers.

I donâ€™t agree with the current administration on many things, but the Troop Surge is working. Not by putting an overwhelming number of troops in the field, but by using some of the same tactics the American Police used against gangs. Currently, there are enough troops to go into an area, clear it out and stay. Before we would clear out an area, move on and clear out another area only to have to return to the first area to clean it out again. The policy that worked was to make the troops part of the community. The police did the same thing in some of the more violent areas of gang controlled cities. They instituted community policing with small police stations in the heart of the gang area. The police become part of the community and become trusted in the end they start working with the community leaders, some who may even have been former enemies. Together they take back the community.

US troops are staying in the areas they clear out posting small units that patrol the area and become part of the community. As a trusted part of the community they are no longer the enemy. Now we are employing some adult males of military age to assist us. Some of these people where citizens, some were soldiers, some could have been insurgents. There is a very high chance that the people who were planting roadside bombs a few months ago are now working with the US troops. To these people their motives and reasons havenâ€™t changed; they are protecting their community from the invaders. In this case the US troops stopped being the invaders, by being part of the community and now the invaders are the terrorists.

This is a slow process, it took a generation for the police to do it in the US and some areas still are trying. It is a manpower intensive one and it isnâ€™t very glamorous. Squad tactics at the neighborhood level hiring locals to help keep the peace. It is difficult and it is going to take some time, but it has started to bring some success.

The problem with the United States is that we are used to quick and easy victories (like the atomic bomb or the cure for polio). The harder battles like the cure for AIDs, a cure for cancer, and the War in Iraq are more difficult for us to handle. George Bush realized this and realized that part of his poor poll numbers were a result of this. The problem is that he went too long, let the poll numbers drop too low, and lost the support of the American people.

Victory in Iraq isnâ€™t going to come anytime soon, if ever. The best we can hope for is to leave a stable Iraq that doesnâ€™t hate us. After the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan the US didnâ€™t do anything to fill the void and the result was the Taliban. Before that when the Shaw of Iran pulled out of Iran the US allowed a power vacuum to remain and the current government is a result of that.

One problem is that it is easier to hate than to love, it is easier to find fault than to find good, and it is easier to unite a people against a common foe than it is to bring them together for their own sakes. In Iran and Afghanistan the US became that â€œcommon foe.â€ In fact most of Western Civilization became that â€œcommon foe.â€ The US got involved because we are seen as the leaders of the West, the last Superpower.

If the Muslims worked more on making peace with their neighbors than making war with outsiders than peace would come, but hate dies hard and to replace it with love is a very difficult thing. In fact I didnâ€™t think it would happen until I saw Rwanda. There the two majority tribes hated each other and got into a civil war. As a result there was a lot of bloodshed, wholesale killing, and mutilations. After things calmed down the Rwandans had an idea of â€œreconciliation;â€ either we go on killing each other until we are all dead or we try to put that behind us and form a new society where that kind of thing doesnâ€™t matter anymore. It is difficult to do and the Muslims are no where near doing it; if they can take the example of Africa though they might.

The only way the US can have victory in Iraq is for the Muslim civil war to stop; to do that the Muslims need breathing space and a stop to the preaching of hate. They are getting a little of the first, but none of the latter. Christianity and Islam both claim to be religions of peace, yet in their name men have done some evil things and started some mighty wars. The Spanish policy in the New World was to either convert or kill the natives. Cortez and his men nearly wiped out the Aztec civilization. The Muslim Mulas that keep preaching Death to America arenâ€™t helping the situation any. They donâ€™t have to be our friends, just leave us alone. The problem is that they make the same claim about us. There fondest desire is for the West to leave them alone and let them continue there war. Then when the war doesnâ€™t bring any victory, like it hasnâ€™t in 1 and 1/2 centuries, then they will attack someone else to drag them into the battle to try and make them force peace or victory. That is how the US got dragged into the mess.

If it werenâ€™t for the oil and the communists then the US never would have gone to the Middle East, but it is difficult to explain global politics to someone who is just above stone age technology. Thirty years after the Vietnam War a lot of Vietnamese thought the US came to Vietnam try and conquer the country, because we wanted it. All we wanted was to stop the global spread of communism. All the North Vietnamese wanted was a united country (it was split after WW2 and was supposed to be given back to the people, the same thing happened in Korea).

As George Bush said in one of his speeches; this war isnâ€™t going to end in my lifetime, it is your war, and your childrenâ€™s war. Peace wonâ€™t come tomorrow or next year, or even in the next decade. It is going to take some time, time for the Muslims themselves to realize they want peace.

Chalie M

The only this war will be won is to attack Iran and bomb them back into the stone age twice.

baserunner316

Prime Minister Howard Stern

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