War in Iraq, what to do?

[Gators]

Hindsight is 20/20, and we can b!tch about the past all we want, but how do we move forward? We cannot afford this war, but to pull out before the Iraq Gov't is capable of defending themselves against Iran could very well lead to oil DOUBLING, what would that do to the economy? I think we need to listen to the Military commanders on how to proceed, something freaking Rumsfeld didn't do, but to pull out prematurely (haha) would have, IMO, severe unintended consequences...

What say you?

[Kingweb50]

I agree you cant leave now. If we did we would just be back in a few years or less on a much worse scale then now probably fighting in more then one country.

[rockinred]

I say it is a no win situation. If the biggest concern is the oil then that solidifies how much of a horrible cause of a war it was. The lost lives on all sides is also horrible.

There is a lot of American money and lives getting filtered that way. I don't know if you will ever feel warm and fuzzy about pulling out. If you wait for that it can be another 50yrs. The decision has to be made on the allocation of our resources time and energy. What is the focus and concern for the American Government/people and how does this War factor into this going forward???

Bad deal either way you slice it. I say pull out and see what happens. Including the oil we also have a lot of other issues and concerns now. The media putting the twist that the oil price is the only one cause for concern is really pissing me off. That is playing into the focus on that War...

[rockinred]

Gators,

About the military commanders... listening to them to take an objective is one thing... It is well known that Hitler failed to listen to his commanders that probably resulted in the down fall fo his military conquering. But Irag is a defeated nation. What more control does the Military commanders need or want? There are not any many more strategic objectives needing a military guidance. The rest of this story is political. I am not going to suggest listen to the military leaders anymore. I am not saying they are war-mongering, but that is their life and profession. Military commanders thrive and live on power and control that is fact. It is the only type of person that succeeds in that role. YOu have to be careful on that issue.

Balance is key.

[thegodfather]

We had no right to invade a sovereign nation to begin with. Iraq never at any point posed a national security thread to the United States. Additionally, there is no Constitutional provision for "preemptive war." Hitler was the one who invented preemptive warfare. The only time the Constitution authorizes Congress(the only ones who can make a declaration of war) to declare war is when the national security of the homeland of this country is directly at risk. That means, we had no right to attack Iraq because we "thought" they "might" have WMDs in 5 or 10 years.

We need a 100% immediate withdrawl of all troops&civilians from the country. No foreign force has ever been able to effectively occupy a country with any success. It is not "Al-Qaeda" fighting us, it is a pissed off Iraqi population that wants us out of their country which we wrongly invaded. It would be no different if China invaded the United States, many of us would be taking up arms against them until they left. I know myself like many Americans would rather us all die before we let a foreign tyrant have control of our country. That is what we are to the Iraqi's, foreign tyrants, they do not view us as liberators, thats only the propaganda that you hear at 6pm on Fox News every night...

[NATE0406]

We had no right to invade a sovereign nation to begin with. Iraq never at any point posed a national security thread to the United States. Additionally, there is no Constitutional provision for "preemptive war." Hitler was the one who invented preemptive warfare. The only time the Constitution authorizes Congress(the only ones who can make a declaration of war) to declare war is when the national security of the homeland of this country is directly at risk. That means, we had no right to attack Iraq because we "thought" they "might" have WMDs in 5 or 10 years.

We need a 100% immediate withdrawl of all troops&civilians from the country. No foreign force has ever been able to effectively occupy a country with any success. It is not "Al-Qaeda" fighting us, it is a pissed off Iraqi population that wants us out of their country which we wrongly invaded. It would be no different if China invaded the United States, many of us would be taking up arms against them until they left. I know myself like many Americans would rather us all die before we let a foreign tyrant have control of our country. That is what we are to the Iraqi's, foreign tyrants, they do not view us as liberators, thats only the propaganda that you hear at 6pm on Fox News every night...

bro i disagree with that. now i agree that we should have never invaded but now that we have the civilians love the US in there country. i know this because my brother and many of my friends are on there second tour. its not the regular civilians fighting us. if you talk to any true US soilder they will tell you the same thing. its easy for us civilians to sit back and make out own jugement about whats going on over there but the truth is unless you have been over there and seen what those ppl are going through on a daily bases you really dont know. think of it this way if the US was run the same way as iraq you would be begging for a super power to come to the aid. point blank is we are doing the right thing. the only thing that pisses me off is that the government invaded iraq under false pretences. they told the US ppl that its for WMD and becasue of 911. now i dont think we over there for either of those reasons. but i do believe that what has been accomplished is a very positive thing. just my 2 cents.

[Kingweb50]

We had no right to invade a sovereign nation to begin with. Iraq never at any point posed a national security thread to the United States. Additionally, there is no Constitutional provision for "preemptive war." Hitler was the one who invented preemptive warfare. The only time the Constitution authorizes Congress(the only ones who can make a declaration of war) to declare war is when the national security of the homeland of this country is directly at risk. That means, we had no right to attack Iraq because we "thought" they "might" have WMDs in 5 or 10 years.

We need a 100% immediate withdrawl of all troops&civilians from the country. No foreign force has ever been able to effectively occupy a country with any success. It is not "Al-Qaeda" fighting us, it is a pissed off Iraqi population that wants us out of their country which we wrongly invaded. It would be no different if China invaded the United States, many of us would be taking up arms against them until they left. I know myself like many Americans would rather us all die before we let a foreign tyrant have control of our country. That is what we are to the Iraqi's, foreign tyrants, they do not view us as liberators, thats only the propaganda that you hear at 6pm on Fox News every night...

This is not true most of the people who are fighting against us are foriegn fighters coming over through Syria.

[thegodfather]

This is not true most of the people who are fighting against us are foriegn fighters coming over through Syria.

Actually, the majority of the people fighting us are coming from Saudi Arabia, our ally. Al-Qaeda makes up less than 2% of the people we are fighting in Iraq. We need an immediate troop withdrawl, it has cost us 4,500 US servicemens lives, and who knows how many that have been injured,maimed, or seriously disfigured for life.

[BgMc31]

We had no right to invade a sovereign nation to begin with. Iraq never at any point posed a national security thread to the United States. Additionally, there is no Constitutional provision for "preemptive war." Hitler was the one who invented preemptive warfare. The only time the Constitution authorizes Congress(the only ones who can make a declaration of war) to declare war is when the national security of the homeland of this country is directly at risk. That means, we had no right to attack Iraq because we "thought" they "might" have WMDs in 5 or 10 years.

We need a 100% immediate withdrawl of all troops&civilians from the country. No foreign force has ever been able to effectively occupy a country with any success. It is not "Al-Qaeda" fighting us, it is a pissed off Iraqi population that wants us out of their country which we wrongly invaded. It would be no different if China invaded the United States, many of us would be taking up arms against them until they left. I know myself like many Americans would rather us all die before we let a foreign tyrant have control of our country. That is what we are to the Iraqi's, foreign tyrants, they do not view us as liberators, thats only the propaganda that you hear at 6pm on Fox News every night...

HOLY SHIT GODFATHER WE AGREE ON SOMETHING!

[BgMc31]

bro i disagree with that. now i agree that we should have never invaded but now that we have the civilians love the US in there country. i know this because my brother and many of my friends are on there second tour. its not the regular civilians fighting us. if you talk to any true US soilder they will tell you the same thing. its easy for us civilians to sit back and make out own jugement about whats going on over there but the truth is unless you have been over there and seen what those ppl are going through on a daily bases you really dont know. think of it this way if the US was run the same way as iraq you would be begging for a super power to come to the aid. point blank is we are doing the right thing. the only thing that pisses me off is that the government invaded iraq under false pretences. they told the US ppl that its for WMD and becasue of 911. now i dont think we over there for either of those reasons. but i do believe that what has been accomplished is a very positive thing. just my 2 cents.

So are you saying that every soldier that doesn't agree with your perspective or the perspective of your brother and his friends, aren't 'true' soldiers. That is disrespectful and untrue. I know many soldiers (including my sister ad brother-in-law who have served 2 tours each in Iraq) who don't see it the way you stated.

The fact remains, we don't know what will happen if we leave Iraq. We can only speculate. But because we went into this war under false pretences, our governments credibility is shot, even with its own people.

[xlxBigSexyxlx]

Actually, the majority of the people fighting us are coming from Saudi Arabia, our ally. Al-Qaeda makes up less than 2% of the people we are fighting in Iraq. We need an immediate troop withdrawl, it has cost us 4,500 US servicemens lives, and who knows how many that have been injured,maimed, or seriously disfigured for life.

exactly what I was about to say.

Im with godfather on this one.

[pumpd4lif]

HOLY SHIT GODFATHER WE AGREE ON SOMETHING!

I must concur.It is funny how people just sound like parrots oh the news said this,my friend said that,my mom told me this,but most people really dont have a clue.Wow we must be the most trusting people to are government.<----and that my friends is why we are in this sad situation,we actually trust are government.Thanks godfather you always back ur comments up with facts you are of strong character in my book,keep up the good work

[Animal Cracker]

Do a Purge vice a surge..take 48 personnel...6 aircrew per B52..nail the largest 8 cities in Iraq..starting with Basrah..then the Anabar area..nail the Mehdi Army and the Wahabbis all at the same time. Done deal.

[Animal Cracker]

Can use the same doctrine on Cairo, Jeddah, Riyahd, Algiers, Tehran, Damascus, Waziristan, D'borne and Detroit.

[thegodfather]

Do a Purge vice a surge..take 48 personnel...6 aircrew per B52..nail the largest 8 cities in Iraq..starting with Basrah..then the Anabar area..nail the Mehdi Army and the Wahabbis all at the same time. Done deal.

That may be an effective military tactic, however you failed to address the underlying political conflict that this thread was presenting. The topic was not about how we should proceed militarily, but rather how the conflict as a whole should be handled moving forward, and additionally what background information need be considered in addressing this issue.

To start, there was overwhelming evidence that the executive branch of the government intentionally distorted intelligence reports, was selective in chosing what reports to accept and reject, and had a hidden agenda of initiating a conflict with Iraq. I could write an entire dissertation on this topic alone, but I will address it in brevity. In the Executive branch, people were at times dismissed from their posts if they did not support the status quo that Iraq/Hussein was in fact pursuing WMD's and posessed them.

Let us ignore for a second these obvious war crimes, that hopefully one day many of these people will stand trial and be convicted for. If the Department of Justice actually decided to start enforcing the law, I would estimate that many of the top officials in the Executive branch could be put on trial this very day for Treason.

Anyway... The point really is, that we invaded a SOVEREIGN nation, which did not present a national security threat to the United States homeland. In addition, the system of checks&balances was ignored by invading this nation without the approval of Congress and without a Declaration of War. The President may in states of emergency deploy US armed forces. What the President/Executive did, was extend the "state of emergency" indefinately, interpreting that law to mean there was no set time period on the state of emergency. By law, the President must present a case to Congress for his use of armed forces within a set period of time (which escapes me right now), and any further occupation must be approved by Congress. This was obviously never done. Anyway, the Constitution sets forth these guidelines, and for a nation to be invaded, it must be presenting a direct national security threat. There is absolutely no doctrine in the Constitution of the United States which authorizes pre-emptive warfare, under any circumstances, EVER! I could expand on this further, but I believe the fact that the President does not have the authority to do half of the things he has done, will suffice for now.