The Iraq war, as far as America is related to it, is lost. I'm not saying that as a defeatist, I'm saying that as someone who is acknowledging the current state of the war, and the door it's about to open:
Current state: Iraq is in a civil war. Yes, we pushed it into it's current state, but we can't fix it without choosing which side we're going to be on. There is no military solution to this problem. At this point, we're just in the way. The only thing we're doing right now is providing and creating cannon fodder, as well as adding to the destabilization of the region.
I'll give Bush credit for one thing... when he said "mission accomplished," he was right. He made sure that Saddam couldn't use any WMD (I'm being snarky). He deposed of Saddam's government, he installed a parliment (and an Islamic republic... oops), and he recreated Iraq in his own image. Technically speaking, Bush got exactly what he wanted. Now it's time for us to leave Iraq and establish a presence outside of the country... phased withdrawl, immediate pullout, whatever is safest for our soliders and allies. There is nothing else we can accomplish unless we plan on having an American presence in the Iraqi parliment.
The open door: The bigger picture, something that is waaaay out of our league. Iraq is sort of now, and soon will be, an enourmous proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. There is absolutely nothing we can bring to the table for this. We fucked up something too big to fix, and it's too late to do anything about it.
Tangentially, I tried to enlist in the Army back in 1994 (I would have gone in as a PFC, yay) but was rejected because of a pretty major/documented back injury that I didn't disclose (because it would have prevented me from going in... I had hoped that it would be overlooked). I was pissed too, as I had spent the two previous years training in a military Explorer post (I didn't have ROTC at my school) and I could pass any PT test at the drop of a hat (I also had about 20 weekend long FTX's under my belt, could set up a GP medium in a half an hour with three other heads, and wound up leading our color guard). Beyond that, I could recite my general orders backwards and knew the handbook better than my driver's license. I seriously have mixed emotions of thanks and regret for not getting in. I really wanted to be a great soldier (my goal throughout high school was to be an MP). When I got rejected I took my ACT, dropped out of high school, took my GED, went to college and became a madman.
Topic: Army Vs. Navy (Read 2096 times)