In an attempt to engage in intelligent discourse with the Gathering of Eagles I have spent the better part of the last day on their message board. There are some intelligent board members, and those who still where the Faux News produced blinders. In an attempt to see their view on Iraq, I produced my ideas on how to fix the problem and I give it to you now.
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I figured I'd start a discussion since most would just go to the lies thread to be "moonbats" and be vulgar in another man's home and I would really love to get ideas and responses from some of you. You may not agree with me, and this is only my opinion, but the plan in Iraq is flawed. Deaths continue to go up and where in a way it is nice to them kill each other instead of us, this has to stop as well.
I have read many times here in the last day how we are America, how great we are, and this is true. The problem right now is we don't look that great, we look like the class bully. You all think the only solution is military action, which is true in some cases but I don't believe it is true anymore in Iraq, if it ever truly was. There were a lot of claims about WHY we invaded but I still believe in two of them; to get Iraq's intell (which was the best in the middle east) and to create a military base in the middle east so that we were capable of striking terrorists at a moments notice. Honestly, I don't have any problem with either of these; they are good solid strategy especially in the region.
For me the problem is in a few different areas, starting with not giving our troops the right equipment for the job. If we saved a billion or two and not given them to the companies, we could have had better body armor and better vehicles. They've been attempting to get Buffalos and Cougars over there for years and the Pentagon drug their feet and waited till really pushing it last year. I can't begin to imagine how many lives those vehicles would have saved. I'm sorry, I don't buy the you go to war with the Army you have rhetoric they could have easily spent the extra money to get these made and shipped but they didn't.
The second issue is the amount of foreign business we gave control over things in Iraq. Haliburtion built I don't know how many things over there and some are already condemned or never actually finished. What we need to do is give that money to the Iraqis, get them involved in the actual process of rebuilding their country. Having them work is one thing, but if they work for Iraqi companies it also puts money back into the region. Maybe it's only my common sense, but people fight harder for things they built themselves then something they were given. We need the Iraqis to be more self reliant and I'm not talking about the do nothing political machine they have. The people themselves need to be kept occupied. It's hard to be an "insurgent" when you spend 8 hours a day building a school.
Thirdly with this initiated we need to redeploy the troops to more strategic positions. We need to send at the least 50,000 to Afghanistan to continue to fight the Taliban and find OBL. You kill a snake by cutting off its head, yet we haven't cut off their head. Figure out the way they fund things and stop it, find the leaders and eliminate them. At the same time we need to bring these folks up to "civilized society" and teach them about freedom. We have to remember all these folks know their entire life is religious government, they know nothing of freedom of press, religion, women's rights and so on and so on. The troops in Iraq that are left should be reduced to 50,000 period. It may seem like a steep drop off, but they should be focused on protecting critical areas and border patrol. Most of the insurgents are coming from Iran, Syria and Jordan. It's tough to sneak across the border when snipers are lined up along the border just waiting for someone to sneak across.
We also need some teaching at home for those of you who see islamofacism as the entire Muslim religion, it isn't. The easiest way I can explain this is comparing it to Christianity so I'm sorry if I offend anyone. Within Christianity there are many sects and branches from Catholics to Baptists to Mormons to Presbyterians and so on and so on. Islam is the same way, hell Sunni and Shia are the both Muslim but two different sects. If all Muslims were terrorists why are we allies with other middle eastern countries? Are you telling me Muhammad Ali is a terrorist? Just attempt to remember that some terrorists are Muslims but not all Muslims are terrorists. Think about it like this, Westboro Baptist Church are Christians but for you Christians do they speak for you?
I look forward to everyone's response and remember, just because they attack us in Iraq doesn't make that person a terrorist. We have invaded their home, some are merely fighting for their country where they see a foreign invader; wouldn't we do the same?
3 comments:
You just about nailed every point. People easily forget about Timothy McVey. A domestic terrorist who in fact, was a Christian.
BTW- They do have a very interesting message board. You really have to dig through all the right wing bullshit until you can find a topic worth discussion
During World War II, the US Senate, lead by the Truman Commission, passed a law forbidding any war industry from making anything beyond a minimal profit. This was after investigations- again, lead by Harry Truman, a Democrat, looking into waste during a Democratic Administration- revealed that the US Government was being overcharged for essential items for Our Troops. Contrast that today, when we are fighting a war that seems to be all about providing profits for industries with political ties to Bush and Cheney. When Truman revealed corruption, Roosevelt was so upset, he made Truman his VP. When corruption is revealed today, the whistleblowers are called Traitors.
What to do in Iraq? I would leave a token force of around 50,000 to secure the city of Baghdad and remove all American forces from the rest of the country. This would allow the government to function. If the country decended deeper into chaos, I would remove the soldiers to Kuwait immediately to protect oil supplies there and in Saudi Arabia. A lot of people seem to forget that the amount of oil we've gotten out of Iraq in the last twenty years is negligable- we don't need it. All we need to do is to prevent the violence from spreading, and we don't need to be in Iraq to accomplish that.
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