Failure in Iraq

[rio grande]

"Why has the United States spent so much money and time so disastrously trying to rebuild occupied nations abroad, while allowing its own infrastructure to crumble untended? Why do we even think of that as "policy"? "

...Not to mention we need not have fought these wars in the first place. Totally unnecessary.  Anyone with any sense could have seen nothing good would come of it.

"Just tote up the score: the Iraqi government is moving ever closer to Iran; the U.S. occupation, which built 505 bases in the country with the thought that U.S. troops might remain garrisoned there for generations, ended without a single base in U.S. hands (none, nada); no gushers of cheap oil leapt USA-wards nor did profits from the above leap into the coffers of American oil companies; and there was a net loss of U.S. prestige and influence across the region. And that would just be the beginning of the list from hell."

And now we hear the warmongers calling for the U.S. to repeat these sad mistakes in Syria and Iran.

http://original.antiwar.com/engelhardt/2012/08/16/how-not-to-reconstruct-iraq-afghanistan-or-america/

[nw_hunter]

Your looking at it being a failure from the view of the average person who pays taxes and has loved ones lost from the results.There are some who have and are still profiting from them............BIG TIME! To them, it has been a success. They don't give a hoot about our lives or the ones from the countries we invade.
 

[magooch]

It comes from not having the stomach to conduct a war to win.  Winning a war is not about changing the hearts and minds of the enemy.  It is about killing the enemy as many as possible and as efficiently as possible.  Don't start what you're not ready to finish.  In the end, a moral  and limited war kills more people than an extreme war and all too often it kills our warriors.

[BBF]

Magooch:
 
 There is no profit in making a war end quickly.

[yellowtail3]

In the end, a moral  and limited war kills more people than an extreme war and all too often it kills our warriors.

perhaps we ought not be sending our warriors to invade other peoples' countries.

[Graybeard]

In the end, a moral  and limited war kills more people than an extreme war and all too often it kills our warriors.

perhaps we ought not be sending our warriors to invade other peoples' countries.

Now there is an idea I can support even if it did come from you. It's rare I agree with you on much but I sure do on this.

[BBF]

In the end, a moral  and limited war kills more people than an extreme war and all too often it kills our warriors.

perhaps we ought not be sending our warriors to invade other peoples' countries.

That works for me as well.

[Dee]

Everyone knows what GW did, and this has been going on since WWII ended. Some war drum beaters have now seen the light that some of us saw 10 years ago. Iraq is a failure? DUH!
Afghan soldiers are going on patrol with our soldiers, and then back shooting them? DUH!
What part of "we don't want your here" does the supporters of war not understand?
A soldier does not pick his wars. He follows orders, and lives or dies, by the hand of politicians we collectively elect. It is as much on the voter, as it is the politicians the voter put in office. When pointing a finger, take note there are three off the same hand pointing at you.
When the voter changes, then, and only then. Washington will change.

[hardertr]

Some war drum beaters have now seen the light that some of us saw 10 years ago. Iraq is a failure? DUH!
Afghan soldiers are going on patrol with our soldiers, and then back shooting them? DUH!
What part of "we don't want your here" does the supporters of war not understand?
A soldier does not pick his wars. He follows orders, and lives or dies, by the hand of politicians we collectively elect. It is as much on the voter, as it is the politicians the voter put in office. When pointing a finger, take note there are three off the same hand pointing at you.
When the voter changes, then, and only then. Washington will change.

Funny... I posted something similar to this 3 years ago as I was just starting a 15 month tour in Iraq.  I took a LOT of heat from many of the "armchair generals" here on GBO who knew somebody who knew somebody who was "fighting terrorists" alongside me in that hell-whole.


Iraq always was, and always will be a place where we WASTED the lives of some of my friends and fellow soldiers for nothing more than a failed humanitarian mission.  Of all those I helped eliminate, and all those who tried to take me out....not ONE of them had anything to do with 9-11!

[Dee]

Some war drum beaters have now seen the light that some of us saw 10 years ago. Iraq is a failure? DUH!
Afghan soldiers are going on patrol with our soldiers, and then back shooting them? DUH!
What part of "we don't want your here" does the supporters of war not understand?
A soldier does not pick his wars. He follows orders, and lives or dies, by the hand of politicians we collectively elect. It is as much on the voter, as it is the politicians the voter put in office. When pointing a finger, take note there are three off the same hand pointing at you.
When the voter changes, then, and only then. Washington will change.

Funny... I posted something similar to this 3 years ago as I was just starting a 15 month tour in Iraq.  I took a LOT of heat from many of the "armchair generals" here on GBO who knew somebody who knew somebody who was "fighting terrorists" alongside me in that hell-whole.


Iraq always was, and always will be a place where we WASTED the lives of some of my friends and fellow soldiers for nothing more than a failed humanitarian mission.  Of all those I helped eliminate, and all those who tried to take me out....not ONE of them had anything to do with 9-11!

hardertr, thank you for your service. My youngest son did 2 tours in Iraq, and l in Afghanistan as a Sgt. in the 82nd Airborne. I gave twenty years of my life as a police officer protecting peoples rights that did not appreciate it, and still take every chance to demean the profession. My son says the Iraqi male is not worth saving. He should know, he was there.

[jimster]

My son says the Iraqi male is not worth saving. He should know, he was there.

Our son says the same thing. 

[BBF]

You can add those that died in 'Nam to the list of "Died for Nothing".

[SHOOTALL]

Face facts nothing gets a country up and running better than the US to beat them in a war .

[Cuts Crooked]

In the end, a moral  and limited war kills more people than an extreme war and all too often it kills our warriors.

perhaps we ought not be sending our warriors to invade other peoples' countries.

Now there is an idea I can support even if it did come from you. It's rare I agree with you on much but I sure do on this.

Agreed! Unfortunately that very thing is why the Republican Party refused to get behind Ron Paul

[mcbammer]

I  see  Senator   McCain   is   doing   that   war   dance  &  beating   those   drums   about  Syria . 

[BBF]

I  see  Senator   McCain   is   doing   that   war   dance  &  beating   those   drums   about  Syria .

 
He is getting to old to see what happens when you replace Govts. in the EU without thinking it through.