Ideas on Iraq?

[LouiseVargas]

Justins,

Your post was clear to me. You are asking for ideas or suggestions or thoughts from other Monkeys regarding how we can get out of Iraq.

I am totally lost on how we can exit Iraq as the winner of the war. After the decapitation strike, Iraq quickly came back to life to fight again. Yep, we killed Uday and Quisy and Saddam was just hanged. We killed a lot of people, yet the situation gets worse and worse.

The current problem results from the faulty quest, which was after we decapitated the government on the first night, that the people of Iraq will be lining the streets handing out flowers to soldiers.

I have no clue on how to solve this war now. It's too late. If we send in more troops now, what difference would it make? More troops were needed at the beginning ... a chance at winning. More troops are being sent now supposedly to calm everything down so we can escape. There is no workable resolution.

The president voted for war, despite all his advisors who told him conflicting stories on how the war could be lost, if he did what he wanted to do.

[justinsmama]

What about examining all the issues impacting Iraqi stability and looking toward solutions in that manner? What about going to the UN and asking for brainstorming from them? There has got to be something that can be done without going on and on with the slaughter of American soldiers and without leaving the Iraqi citizenry at the further mercy of factions fighting to control their land and their souls.

[MsVada]

Ask a soldier who has done a tour over in Iraq what they think......

I had 2 of my cousin's do tours over there,  one was 18 months and the other one did 13.

BOTH came home with issues.

 One cousin was hit in the shoulder from shrapnal and 2 years later is still having surgeries and not able to return to his normal job fully functional.

The other cousin came home with severe PTSD, mostly because he was on the front lines and saw too many casualties.  

BOTH have said if they could go back and finish this fight for the good of the innocent people in Iraq, they would!

ONE PROBLEM WITH OUR MEDIA,  they only show the bombings and negative crap,  they don't show enough of the good that is happening there.  

It should say a lot to people, when a soldier says they'd go back, even when they experienced the good, bad and ugly over there.

[nonesuche]

MsDarthVada-

I can't even post what Rick said should be done it was so extreme and he was there during the Gulf War. Yes most of the soldiers don't wish to see us pull out either, at least not the ones in leadership. Haven't we had only one general to date state he felt we should pull out? very small minority...

the complexity is also that this is a population that spent so many years under dictator rule, change and independence isn't as simple as liberation and voila - it's done ! So just as Bush has stated training and education is key in this, baby steps as well, but we are so impatient with it as citizens !

then we're also dealing with extremist factions that much like the samurai bombers that hit Pearl Harbor, are willing to give their lives in order to hurt our troops? Women and children thrust out with bombs strapped to their backs just to make a statement ?

Yes the UN should help Justins but the UN has become the biggest lame duck there is currently. I actually think it should be dissolved and modernized to meet the challenges of today and to eliminate some of the back room politics that are hindering progress in the UN also.

the challenges are so great and Louise unlike  you, I do firmly believe their were WMD's that were moved to Syria prior to the last inspections in Iraq. I wish I could remember the name of Saddam's general who wrote a book after finding asylum here in the US, regarding just how many and where in Syria they were taken. Why would he put a price on his own head by lying? I do believe him.

the media wants to fester the debate and the division, that is so clear Ms Vada and you are so correct. we get only half the story...

[justinsmama]

What we are doing is not working. I am not advocating pulling out and leaving the region up for grabs. I am asking for ideas on what would help to stabilize Iraq. Look at from a perspective as if this were a paper y'all were required to write. The purpose of the hypothetical paper is to identity means of stabilizing Iraq. Anyone who does so gets an "A" and those who post without doing so gets an "F".  

[nonesuche]

 right back atcha Justins  

this is like asking someone to write a term paper but giving them only half the book for research !!!

be kind, we ain't got all the info here, nor am I a military strategist and not likely to have the best advice !

 

[mrs. red]

OK justins... sorry my passion for staying got the best of me...

I think we sesnd more troops and stop hand cuffing them with stupid ass Court Maritals for things like Abu Grav.... those pictures "humilimating" those terrorist were absolutely freaking NOTHING compared to Danny Pearl or Nick Berg....


they behead and they can.... oh but some soliders "mistreat" prisioners by pictures that humilimate and the world ends.....

this makes me so mad I want to spit nails.....

so my thought would be  - take off the gloves and kick ass... stop pussyfooting around and trying to be nice... just nuke 'em (the terrorists, not Iraq)

[justinsmama]

Good start, Mrs.! And that made me think one very simple aspect of the overall solution- to provide our troops with the quality and quantity of equipment they need.

[mrs. red]

Good start, Mrs.! And that made me think one very simple aspect of the overall solution- to provide our troops with the quality and quantity of equipment they need.

and stop handcuffing them with Court Maritals.....

[nonesuche]

I'd like to share a video on CNN that details the capture and eventual release of an international coorespondent, which explains some of the complexities of this war in the streets. It is so much more complicated than right vs wrong, civil war always is.

What is clear however from this, is that power is essential to bargaining thru diplomacy, however brutal the diplomacy may be.

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/bestoftv/2007/01/30/cooper.ware.interview.cnn

[justinsmama]

I'd like to share a video on CNN that details the capture and eventual release of an international coorespondent, which explains some of the complexities of this war in the streets. It is so much more complicated than right vs wrong, civil war always is.

What is clear however from this, is that power is essential to bargaining thru diplomacy, however brutal the diplomacy may be.

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/bestoftv/2007/01/30/cooper.ware.interview.cnn

My sound has not been functional since I messed around in the guts of my computer (installed more RAM and had to unplug some connections that I fear I reconnected to the wrong places.   ). And yes, this is the sort of thing that I'm asking to be identified and considered in any approach we (US) may take/