Fewer Troops In Iraq By Winter?
By California Yankee Posted in War — Comments (31) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Buried in the mainstream media's rush to declare the "surge" a failure, Defense Secretary Robert Gates "cautiously offered the possibility that troops could begin drawing down next winter:"
Gates said the decision to extend the deployments of U.S. troops from one year to 15 months "gets all the bad news out at once." But, he added, "the new news that may come sometime next winter is, 'Oh, by the way, you don't have to go, or you're not going to be extended.'"Asked if he thinks that may happen next winter, he said, "I think it's a possibility."
Democrats and their biased supporters, the mainstream media, declared the two-month-old security plan a failure after to terror attacks obviously designed to evoke just such a response. The headline grabbing attacks, the bombing of Iraqi parliament building's cafeteria and a truck bombing of major bridge spanning the Tigris River in Baghdad, do not mean the new strategy is not working. We must remember that launched just two months ago the new security plan is just beginning. The troop 'surge' is not expected to reach full strength until June.
The Democrats campaigned for a change in our efforts in Iraq. After the midterm election thumpin' President Bush made changes. He fired Rumsfeld, put General Petraeus in charge in Iraq, and developed a revised strategy, which even in its initial stages is showing signs of progress. It is disgustingly shameful for the Democrats and their mainstream media supporters to work so hard to ensure we don't succeed in the war. If they truly want to bring troops home sooner, perhaps next winter as suggested by Secretary Gates, they should support the war effort instead of assisting our enemies with their strategy of slowly bleeding the war effort to death.
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I have two in my family that are talking career now instead of opting out and a 21 year old that is giving up a career/schooling to go to boot camp in June and he's already talking career (one heck of a recruiter, along with my oldest) so it can't be all bad.
Despite the bad press and the negative talk from the left there seems to be good things going on still at least from the talk I hear.
Well done is better than well said. —Benjamin Franklin
Marine Corps deployments have always been, and will continue to be, seven months. The fifteen month cycles are Army and do not include the Marines.
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Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
in the press conference when the 15 month change was announced. The Marine rotation will not change.
The Shiite and Sunnis have been killing each other for 1400 years.
Please explain how the surge is going to end that?
A good, solid round of incredible bloodletting by whichever side can mass more material, men, and momentum should resolve the problem for a few decades.
Garbage in, garbage out.
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We are all heroes, you and Boo and I. Hamsters and rangers everywhere, rejoice!
We are on the same page....
I would love to see what happens to al-Qaeda once we leave Iraq.... It ain't gonna be pretty.
the Shiite and Sunnis have been killing each other for 1400 years.
Give me some examples of warfare between them. I mean if this is true you should have a dozen or so wars between these sects in easy reach as that is less than one per century.
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling
The rest of the comment suggests a further misunderstanding of streiff's comment, and indeed, disappointingly, mine.
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We are all heroes, you and Boo and I. Hamsters and rangers everywhere, rejoice!
before posting it, Sparky. How many wars does it list between Sunni and Shia over the past 1400 years?
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling
One time and one place with Shiite and Sunnis have lived in close proximity in peace.
Just one.
Despite much of the irreligious character of his caliphate, Mu'awiyya was an enormously brilliant and effective ruler. During his tenure, Islam enjoyed twenty years of internal peace and solidified its control over Iraq and Iran. Mu'awiyya was an effective adminstrator and staffed administrative positions with the best administrators he could find. He also embodied fully the Arabic virtue of hilm, or "leniency," and generously forgave even some of his worst enemies. That forgiveness and leniency is what helped to establish the new administrative structure the Umayyads were building.
See:
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ISLAM/UMAY.HTM
Now on to the main point. You can't collapse the history of any one of the world's great religions into a snappy one-liner in a comment on a blog. So why try?
For what it's worth, while there has been Sunni-Shia conflict throughout the history of Islam, it comes and it goes. Like Dave Hinz points out in one of the other comments, a good part of it is more Arab tribal than religious. Shi'ism has also been a way for non-Arab cultures to express themselves in an Islamic framework, such as in Iran.
I'm just saying that your statement is bull. It is a cheap, unsubstantiated toss-off line with as much historical accuracy as "we created the taliban." The sectarian bloodshed has been no more remarkable over the past 1400 years than anything in Christendom, ancient or modern.
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling
he actually has a point. The thing is, that Sunni vs Shiite has always been more along the tribal fighting level. Wars, as we know them, are not a big Arab or Muslim thing. Tribal raiding, a little murder/slaughter here, a massacre there. I've been reading on the subject...its been practically non-stop since the schism formed over who was the rightful heir after the death of Mohammad.
This is not to say that Islam cannot be drawn into the 21st century through education and democracy, changing the face of the Middle East,as the President has suggested, but it will not be easy.
The oarsmen have their armor and we just fixed up the dragon bow sprite.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Hahahahaha.
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Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the Gods, and the judge of words...-Inscription on the Royal Tombs at Thebes
been getting along in Europe for ... probably days or weeks.
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Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
Roughly when they both stopped caring about their faith.
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We are all heroes, you and Boo and I. Hamsters and rangers everywhere, rejoice!
So we shouldn't call it a failure, even if its failing because 'thats what the terrorists would want!'You guys are great. And a link to an op-ed piece on 'signs of improvement in Iraq'. Nice.
Please crawl back to the hole or rock you crawled out from or even better go find a person in uniform and make some smart remarks to them and post the pictures of the beating you get for me to gloat over.
Yes I actually said that and I hope it doesn't get me booted but I'm sick of people like you.
People like you are what's wrong with America, not as you think part of what makes us great.
While many fight and die for what they believe to be a true and just calling, pathetic morons who have no civility and understand nothing but me me me sit back while their betters fight and die for America and it's freedom.
Yes freedom, without those who are willing to be the frontline the battle moves here, where no doubt you would would wet your pants and beg, no, demand, in your ingratitude, that your pathetic life be protected and preserved, by your betters, that you could care less about while they fight the fight abroad.
I have no doubt that if the fight did actually come to you on your street that you, like so many others of your ilk, would hide behind your little sister and push her ahead of you in appeasement if you thought it would spare you.
"A coward dies a thousand deaths, a hero dies but once." How many times have you perished so far little man?
Well done is better than well said. —Benjamin Franklin
Have you given serious thought to actually offering substantive contributions to this forum? No? I thought not.
I'm not usually of the do-this-more-complicated-than-a-retraction-thing school of board enforcement, but it's been quite the rage today, and I'm ever a student of the avant garde, so: Your next comment will provide a substantive response to whatever comment, story, or diary has moved you to respond. I am the sole judge of whether it is substantive, and I do not believe in curves, never having benefited from one. I'll review your submission in good faith, and if your newfound tendency to offer substance -- even when that substance is at odds with the prevailing consensus of the board -- continues, so will your account. If not, not.
Good luck.
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We are all heroes, you and Boo and I. Hamsters and rangers everywhere, rejoice!
is different than real world. I just got of the phone with my girlfriend, and she had been talking to her sister, her husband a Marine in Iraq. He decided not to re enlist...because he thinks the command is not being up front and honest about the extensions...and there are others in his unit taking the same route.
I'd hate to say moral is taking a beating, but it sure seems it might be coming...
" in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
Abe Lincoln