You can't outwait the enemy, they live there.
From yahoo.com/dailynews:
House Sets Iraq Timetable
"The House voted Friday for the first time to clamp a cutoff deadline on the Iraq war, agreeing by a thin margin to pull combat troops out by next year and pushing the new Democratic-led Congress ever closer to a showdown with President Bush."
"The House voted Friday for the first time to clamp a cutoff deadline on the Iraq war, agreeing by a thin margin to pull combat troops out by next year and pushing the new Democratic-led Congress ever closer to a showdown with President Bush."
It's good that Democrats are getting more aggressive in their opposition to the war .. but when it comes down to it, attaching demands for withdrawal to critical military spending bills is about all they can do. The Preznit can veto it.
One third of Americans think Democrats are jeopardizing success in Iraq .. the majority of us think the place is so shot to hell that it is time to get out.
Since this has now turned into a civil war where we don't really have a dog in the fight -- we don't want the Shiites to win because they are religious nuts affiliated with Iran, and we don't want the Sunni to win because they are religious nuts affiliated with al Qeida -- we should just pack up and go home and let the Iraqis sort it out. Don't give them warning, don't set a timeline .. just do it.
Either way it comes out, the US will NOT have a friend in Iraq.
To the people yelling about "cut and run" I say we survived it before in Korea, Vietnam, Somalia.
And, come on, this bill sets a timeline of 17 months to fully redeploy the troops. In 17 months we will have been in Iraq for almost 5.5 years. We should have been able to secure at least the Green Zone in that amount of time.
But almost every time they tell us that things are going well, we get a reality check on the ground. Like the other day when the UN secretary-general had to duck for cover behind the press conference podium .. an insurgent rocket hit nearby.
How clever that the insurgents could time it to happen at that moment. And another jarring reminder that Iraq is still awash in weapons after four years of war.
No, they don't all come from Iran -- there are so many mortars, rockets and artillery shells for making IED's and car bombs because of Rummy's poor planning in the very beginning .. for not securing all those ammo dumps. Four years later and we still can't get a handle on it. What does that say?
As US troops and Iraqi security forces step up the crackdown on violence, there are fresh signals that insurgents aren't backing down .. they just become more barbaric. A suicide bomber drove up to a checkpoint with two children in the back seat .. we let it through, it parks, the adults run out, detonate it with the children in the back.
We can't even point to the Iraqi government as a shining example. On TV the other day Stuart Bowen, the IG for Iraq Reconstruction, said corruption within the Iraqi government is such a serious problem that it inhibits all progress in Iraq. They are calling it the second insurgency.
Bush's 'plan' entirely hinges on the Iraqi government .. if corruption is such a problem, how is this security plan ever going to work?
It's time to go home folks.
No, not cut and run. We just say we have done what we went to Iraq to do -- get rid of Saddam, make sure there weren't any WMD's, and make it possible for the Iraqis to elect their own government.
Then we should go back to Afghanistan and fight terrorists there .. that place is really coming undone.
With every day that we stay in Iraq and lose and use up soldiers and equipment, the insurgency just waits us out .. and other countries such as Iran, N. Korean, Venezuela, etc. are strutting around like peacocks.
And I'm so tired of the old Rightie mantra -- "fight them there so we don't have to fight them here."
What does that mean exactly? That if we weren't in Iraq the terrorists would follow us here and plant IED's at the corner of Main Street, USA?
Does it mean they would kidnap Americans from their homes and show beheadings on the Internet from Honeysuckle Lane in Branson, Missouri?
Somehow that just doesn't seem plausible. They could do that right now if they wanted to. One 'pregnant' lady loaded with a suicide bomb at the mall ...
Believe me, there are terrorist cells operating right here in America right now .. and nothing but good old-fashioned undercover police work is stopping them from doing their dirty work.
Bring the troops home so they can protect our airports, ports and borders.
