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Read other letters about this article
Shooter said:
For instance, nearly everyone here thought invading Iran was a done deal. They were wrong
There is a big difference between thinking that an event might happen, and actively advocating the event. Some people thought that this crazy administration might try to launch airstrikes against Iran. That didn't happen, for a variety of reasons (the Iran NIE threw a blanket on those plans) Nobody here was advocating a strike on Iran. See the difference?
Most people were on board for invading Afghanistan and it's not looking so good these days. Does that counter the support of invading Iraq? How does one condone invading one country, while considering the invasion of another anathema?
It is widely accepted that Afghanistan and its Taliban government were giving safe harbor to Al Qaeda and bin Laden, and thus were responsible for 9/11. Iraq, however, had nothing to do with 9/11. See the difference? Also, do you think there is any connection with the lack of military resources available for Afghanistan, and the bulk of our ground forces being stuck in Iraq for 5 years?
Do we examine the bona fides of those that said the Iraq elections would be a sham or even non-existent?
The Iraqi election were a sham. They were intended to unite the Iraqis. The Sunnis boycotted them, remember? The nation descended into civil war. Ring a bell?
How about those that got the surge effort wrong?
Most criticized the surge because it had no corresponding political effort to stabilize the country. And that is exactly what has happened. The surge was a tactic to reduce violence. The strategy was supposed to be political reconciliation. The strategy failed.
More importantly, where are the predictions for what happens if/when we pull out? Personally I think civil war will resume and Iran will take over a large portion of Iraq.
Everybody thinks that civil war will resume. We can only stop people from fighting temporarily. The argument is that Americans should not be giving their lives in a futile attempt to prevent two factions from killing each other. It's gonna happen whether we stay or we leave. It will take at least a generation for things to change. Iran became a player in the region because the US failed to stabilize Iraq in the first six months. Some bells cannot be unrung. So the borders might change. They have in the past, and they will again.
