Head in the sand
May 1st, 2007 | 
Author: 
I just read this:
President Bush vetoed a $124 billion war-spending bill Tuesday because it included an Iraq pullout timetable which he called setting a date for failure. Â
 “setting a date for failure“?
No. It doesn’t.
It sets a date for admitting failure!
The actual failure happened years ago.
I’m currently ‘into’ investing, and re-reading my ‘investment’ books.
Every single one of them mentions the single biggest error one can make: staying in a losing position thinking it will go up soon and that it will erase the losses.
It never does.
In that light .. even if it WAS setting the date of failure… (known in investing-speak as placing a stop-loss order) that would be a good thing.
Support our troops.
Get them outa there!
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Posted in Politics
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“Get them out of there” sounds just great.
How? How do we do that in a way that prevents us from going back there in two years, or 5? Maybe for higher stakes. Maybe not. I don’t know – neither do you. We can only guess.
And you took the “setting the date for failure” out of context – I don’t have the exact quote, but it was something like, “If we tell the enemy when we are going to leave, then we are setting the date for failure”.
And I agree with that – why the hell would we even THINK about doing that?
But the real question is HOW do we “get them out of there”? Simply shutting off funding is NOT a cohesive exit plan!
So far, that’s the only plan our new Congress has come up with. If they want to run a war, they had better get more creative than that.
How do we get them out of there?
The same way we got them out of Vietnam. Just a bit more orderly perhaps.
Why would we have to go back? That was the main concern with Vietnam too, remember. Well, we left (I use ‘we’ loosely of course), and the ‘enemy’ overran the country. And what happened? Where are we now? Vietnam is now a nice blossoming tourist destination and our ‘stars’ go there to adopt their babies.
Why would we even THINK about WHAT? Leaving? Well, because we went there to wage a war against Sadam and WMD’s. One is gone, the others weren’t there to begin with. Bush was actually right when he spoke the memorable words on that carrier “Mission accomplished”. If only he had acted accordingly. You have to realize that we’re currently NOT waging a war there. We’re just, completely ineffectively, patrolling between two fighting sects that are killing eachother and only see killing Americans as a bonus, but it’s currently not that focus. There simply isn’t a THING we can do there (other perhaps than a complete and full occupation, but that will REALLY lead to a Middle East on fire: NONE of the Arab states would condone that).
Again. The objectives of the war have been met. There is currently NOTHING we can accomplish there in a millitary fashion, and staying there only makes things worse … and we will continue to lose soldiers. Do you have ANY idea .. ANY idea at all, how we can bring peace to that country by keeping our military deployed there? Can you even phatom ‘success’ there? Do you really think there will be a day, like described by Cheney, where Iraqi’s will wave at the patrolling Americans, handing them flowers and thanking them for their liberation?
Go watch that famous documentary about the last Americans leaving Vietnam again! (the one where they’re shoving helicoptes off the carrier into the sea, to make more room for people). Let’s make sure it’s not going to be that shameful again! I have said it before … the only reason for not leaving is about not losing face. We’re paying an incredible price for that pride!
“Do you really think there will be a day, like described by Cheney, where Iraqi’s will wave at the patrolling Americans, handing them flowers and thanking them for their liberation?” – Yes. Every day. Every day we stay, and make a block safer, or build a new school. People in Iraq ARE waving scarves and welcoming our soldiers – and yes, even thanking them.
If you don’t belive that, you should try changing your news source once in a while – read Iraqi bloggers, read Michael Yon.
Stop buying into what you see on TV – TV is there for your entertainment, not your education. 99% of those spouting opinions on TV about Iraq have never been there.
Read from people who have been. Read from people that still are.
And no, I am not suggesting we stay forever. But unlike Vietnam, Al Quida has already demonstrated that they can, and will, take their Holy War to our streets.
Personally, I would rather keep it in their streets.
Rob