Sounds like those troops were just there to eat meals and collect a paycheck. Fighting wasn't part of the deal.
How's that nation building going guys? Iraq is 100% all on Bush and his sycophants. Any effort to spin it any other way is too stupid even for this place (well maybe not for this place or Faux News).
Paso, Didn't Obama want this job? Wasn't he elected to end the war? He wanted this job and took office knowing full well what his responsibilities were. He said yesterday the world is safer than it was when he took office. That's his benchmark for himself. Who here actually believes that? Stop blaming Bush...it marginalizes some otherwise very well considered positions.
Stop blaming Bush for an optional war that he started? How about no? Bush invaded Iraq and ****** it up completely. Now it is Obama's fault?
More Obama double speak; "I DON'T RULE OUT ANYTHING IN IRAQ — But No 'Boots On The Ground'". If you refuse to put boots on the ground, aren't you in fact ruling something out? Lucky for us that our "friends" from Iran are willing to put boots on the ground, which is the only way to stop this.
Fairly certain that Obama accepted the position in full, without limitations. However, he also promised to faithfully follow the constitution, so we know he might have really not accepted all responsibilities of the position.
Is it any real surprise that 30K troops fleeing from 800 insurgents? I mean, it IS in the same country that saw their troops surrendering to CNN camera crews in January 1991.
The Model US influences (NGOs, on-ground military advisors, CIA (incognito perhaps)... etc etc., followed by some stronger indirect or direct force)... leads to regime change... then install "our guy"... defined as someone who "says" he/she opposes "Fill-In-The-Blank", so we say fine, okay. Followed by gradual fragmentation, unrest, maybe outright chaos, all measured in months or single digit years, often (as in the past) decades. Leading to... things no better than before. In the meantime, someone profits, the US gov't gets to enjoy the Thrill of Exercising Power (like sex, or any kind of drug-induced high)... ah, the thrill, to command 10 aircraft carriers and the mightiest military force on the planet.. You don't even have to use them... with them behind you, you can order people around, tell the what "they should do, better do, need to do, what we 'expect' you to do"... and so on. The Moral of the Story: We act, and nothing is any different later on, and a whole lot of people suffer, including die. Civilians, people of all kinds. If we all put down our Starbucks and looked up and saw it for what it is... maybe it would change. Not sure. But it begins by taking off the blinders of this Matrix we live in and admit what political power is and does, even in America. I love the country, but the government is not the country. You, me, our neighbors, the people... we are the country. And we are moral and ethical and not corrupt. But political power changes that when the power consumes those holding that power. I don't know the answer. EDIT: Forgot to add one more thing. In carrying out "the model" of intervention and interference in the affairs of others ... we create (more) enemies.
You're linking something from an avowed plagiarizer - the lowest of journalistic sins. Faux News indeed. Paso, I could tell you to get your head out of the sand about Iraq and lend something constructive to the issues at hand, but honestly...what difference at this point does it make?
