August 21, 2005
Four More Years....
By Damon McCullar
...and that's not of the Bush administration. No, unfortunatly it's much worse. That's how long the Army plans to stay in Iraq at it's current manning of more than 100,000 troops. That was reported yesterday in an interview that Gen. Peter Schoomaker had with the AP.
The story is also being carried by CNN (that's where I heard about it). That's seven years in Iraq if they get out in four more years. That information is a little depressing to me, so tell me how you guys feel about it.
Posted by Damon McCullar at August 21, 2005 05:07 AM
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Sen. Chuck Hagel, I think, expressed it perfectly this morning on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos": "Complete folly."
Hey, whatever it takes to spend that trillion dollars we don't have in an effort to set up a new state allied with Iran and dedicated to a Constitution inspired by Islamic fundamentalism. And only in seven years? I think that's what everyone signed up for, right?
I personally think Iraq will be torn apart by civil war within a year and we will find ourselves in another Viet Nam. And as we did in Viet Nam, in the end we will find we would have saved a lot of time by just handing over the keys. Then it was the communists. Now it is the Shi'ite fundamentalists.
In both Iran and Iraq our policy was determined by the oil interests. Some say the same motivation was behind our involvement in Viet Nam. Interesting how in the Viet Nam war the main "profiteer" was Brown & Root. Now it's KBR. Of course Halliburton owned Brown & Root, didn't it? They sold it to Kellogg and then bought it back when they bought Kellogg. Which is now KBR.
I bet those books are as interesting as Enron's.
I have to agree with norbizness. I personally do not see a difference between those who seek Islamic Fundamentalism to rule the Middle East and those who seek an ultra right-wing evangelistic form of government in our own country. The founders of events such as Justice Sunday are just as religiously radical as those in favor of Islamic Fundamentalism. In both cases you are using religion to be the basis and advancement if your cause. Religion can definitely serve as a tool of unity, but history will tell us that extreme practice and association has led to nothing but degrading qualities of those groups who practice the extremism. Allowing that form of extremism to foster in our own country is just as destructive as allowing it to foster in the Middle East. I for one follow the bang wagon that believes this war turns from a fight over occupation and a fight against terrorism into a war over ideology with even more religious undertones. The thing we should fear most is a fight based solely on a religious basis. However with our administration having the narrow sighted views and opinions they do, I fear that this war will amount to a fight on a greater scale. I guess this opnion comes mostly from my liberal arts background which causes one to thing in a larger picture – obviously a trait missing from those people we are entrusting to “lead” our country in our current situation.
Our military does not have any plans on leaving. I think there will always be a U.S. base in Iraq just like in Germany and other countries that serve a strategic purpose.
They also apparently thought they would always have a base in Iran also. Until Khomeini double crossed them.
The break down goes:
200 billion spent on Iraq in two years
500 billion (adjusted for inflation) spent on Vietnam in 8 years
1,850 troops lost in Iraq
58,000 troops lost in Vietnam
The difference, we spent 8 years in Vietnam before we finally had the sense to get out of there. With Iraq, the public will hopefully backlash before we have the chance to reach out Vietnam numbers.
So when the attendees at the last Republican Nat'l Convention bellowed "Four More Years"...this is what they were talking about?!?
Yeah, more than a little depressing, Damon.
