Comments on: Senator Reid On Iraq: "This War Is Lost"

Democratic Majority Leader Says Troop Buildup Is Not Working

[freedomisnot]

1-Afghanistan is landlocked and difficult to supply and sustain major troop deployment
2-Afghanistan while a muslim country would not be (our occupation of) as offensive to the islamofacists
3-Iraq is closer to Syria,Egypt,Saudi Arabia, and Iran (less commuting problems for the terrorists)

Here is the mission:

To draw out the extremist islamofacist from their host countries (who deny any affiliation)and kill enough of them to limit or eleminate their ability to wage war.

By occupying a Holy Muslim country we were baiting the extremists to the battlefield of our choosing.

We will know when the mission is complete when the terrorists stop showing up to fight.Asymetric war is difficult to gage in terms of winning or losing.
I like most people agonize with these facts and feel very strongly about putting our young men and women in this type of war but to do nothing would have been a crime to future generations.

[realpatriot1]

Our troops were already in the middle east in Afghanistan and the terrorists were there too!

Perhaps you need to think about the logic of what you're saying.

As far as Reid is concerned I agree. As far as the troops go, there is as much variety of opinion among them as among the general public. They just don't have as much freedom to openly discuss it. Besides, you don't know any better than anyone else stateside what's really going on.

As far as whether we're winning or losing it depends on what the mission is and that's never been adequately defined.

To say that the only way to lose a war is to stop fighting is ludicrous. The best way to lose a war is to go in with a mission based upon lies,insuffient troops, insufficient allies,insufficient armaments and supplies, and inadequate popular support from the locals. You can't win a guerilla war that way and we should've already learned that from previous tragic experience.

[freedomisnot]

If you watch the cable news or log onto the major media web sites the only thing happening in Iraq is bombings and retribution killings.But if you dig a little deeper -read the soldier blogs and citizen soldier reporters that have embedded for long periods of time with the troops
a different picture emerges.

The truth is that these bombings are only a small part of the overall picture but the terrorist know how to exploit these bombings for maximum propaganda affect. They know we debate ,ad nausium, everything. They know the media will cover the bombings while the less spectacular events will not be covered. They know the Democrats are weak kneed prone to crawfishing selfserving liberials. And the media is only too happy to propagate this partial truth.Why???
What do you really know about what's going on in Iraq ? Not much.But they bombard us with negative images and negative words and experts who don't know any more than we do extolling the doom and gloom scenerios and declare the war is lost. THE ONLY WAY TO LOSE THIS WAR IS TO STOP FIGHTING.

[freedomisnot]

Iraq was just a vehicle used to get our troops into the Middle East to hunt and kill terrorists.If you believe these terrorists will just go away if we leave them alone you are dead wrong.They will continue to hunt and kill unarmed civilians like you.President Bush was faced with an extremely difficult situation like no other president has faced before.How do you fight a shadow enemy claiming no sponsor country,no territory who hides behind civilians??

He made the right decision as hard as that is to believe watching the media pundits and experts extole thier exstinsive knowledge of the situation.The truth is they don't know whats going on so they fill in the void with ***.

As for Reid he is a politician and is only interested in increasing his power base and scooping up as much of our tax dollars as he can. I personally think his words are treasonist and he should be punished as such. His words only serve his political agenda not the American people as a whole.

The War is not lost.Turn off the TV unplug your computer and Think!!! Don't let the pundits and self proclaimed experts think for you.If you can't handle the war stick your head in the sand and let the people that are willing to fight do their job.Freedom is not free.We will unfortunatly continue to pay with blood,sweat,and tears.

[freedomisnot]

A little history refresher is in order.I'll only go back to 1993 but this trend is 20+ years in the making.
1993 - first attempt to blow up World Trade Center
1996- Khobar towers blown up in Saudi Arabia
1998- US embasy in Kenya blown up
2000- USS Cole bombed in Yemen
2001- World Trade Center blown up

Do you see a pattern yet? Bill Clinton tried for years to ignor the problem it did not go away.So we have a group of people who claim no country of origin (so we know who to destroy) attacking us with increasing lethality.

[tbweb]

Some wise person once said "Know Your Enemy!". This applys to everything, even in the professional world. You can deal with an enemy on their level without losing your values and becoming like them! This is evident in those combating computer hackers and common thieves who break into property. Professional Locksmiths are masters at their craft because they "Know Their Enemy!", they understand all the weaknesses and thinking that's goes into breaking and picking locks by criminals, this skill and knowledge allows the Professional Locksmith to protect the rest of us. If someone gets locked out of their car or home a locksmith can open any lock in a matter of minutes. The morals and values of the locksmith won't allow them to become a criminal themselves, but they must have the criminals skills and knowledge to defeat the criminal. The same is true with fighting extreme Islamic terrorist, we can fight like them and play by their rules without becoming them!

[ajmarine1]

j-witman,

Hindsight is 20-20 and "yes" the war has not gone as I wished it would have.

I don't know how it will end, but if the war "is" lost, our politicans should say that stuff to each other in private and find an end solution, not run to a micro phone and tell are enemeies.

[homespunlady]

Apr 21, 10:35 AM (ET)

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN

BAGHDAD (AP) - A wall U.S. troops are building around a Sunni enclave in Baghdad came under increasing criticism on Saturday, with residents calling it "collective punishment" and a local leader saying construction began without the neighborhood council's approval.

The U.S. military says the wall in Baghdad is meant to secure the minority Sunni community of Azamiyah, which "has been trapped in a spiral of sectarian violence and retaliation." The area, located on the eastern side of the Tigris River, would be completely gated, with entrances and exits manned by Iraqi soldiers, the U.S. military said earlier this week.


This bit of information is making Iraq seem more like WWII Poland every day. Can we say Jewish Ghetto - also created from what I remember - "to protect them".

[j-whitman]

AJMarine1 -- Many of us don't want that either, but let's face it bro ----- This war was a failure from the get go -- We can fight no war with private contractors involved, they get in the way & aren't accountable to our Generals,, Not to mention a military with reduced to peace time numbers.. LBJ Surged, Nixon Surged - both knew the war was lost,, just as Bush knows.

[ajmarine1]

realpatriot1,

"If come fall, it's going badly, I hope we just don't run for the coptors."

Me too, I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the way the Viet Nam war ended; I see the people scambling for the coptors, the ones left behind, and the NVA tanks rolling through the streets of Saigon.

As for the Arab League, I would have thought by now they would be condeming all the slaughtering of Muslims by Muslims; .......kinda quiet out there.