McCain on balancing the Budget

[jreeves]

McCain wants us to continue to waste $200 billion dollars a year in Iraq. That's enough for me to vote against him.

We would lose way more than that if we were to withdraw irresponsibly and let a civil war ensue. A civil war in a region that is a powder keg, the middle east.

 

[Chris]

We would lose way more than that if we were to withdraw irresponsibly and let a civil war ensue. A civil war in a region that is a powder keg, the middle east.

No, the Shias would win the civil war pretty quickly.

 

[jreeves]

No, the Shias would win the civil war pretty quickly.

They would have the upperhand now that's for sure, thanks in most part to the surge. But if we withdrew before the job is complete all types of factions would pop up.

 

[editec]

They would have the upperhand now that's for sure, thanks in most part to the surge. But if we withdrew before the job is complete all types of factions would pop up.

They're going to have to work this out for themselves eventually.

We have bascially stabilized the nation, have we not?

What metric do we use to decide that we're done?

Did you READ the Rand report? ( I linked to it on a thread I started about it)

RAND suggests that the military is the WORST way to deal with terrorism in Iraq, you know. Terrorism is best dealt with in this situtation by POLICE and INTEL, not by having Marines patrolling the streets.

Do you NOT trust the government's OWN think tank?

Do you honestly believe that Bush and Cheyney and a boatload of neo-cons who never served understand how to win this thing better than RAND and the thinking generals of our military do?

Your loyalty to Bush and the neo-cons is misplaced if you're seriously interested in WINNING this war.

 

[jreeves]

They're going to have to work this out for themselves eventually.

We have bascially stabilized the nation, have we not?

What metric do we use to decide that we're done?

Did you READ the Rand report? ( I linked to it on a thread I started about it)

RAND suggests that the military is the WORST way to deal with terrorism in Iraq, you know. Terrorism is best dealt with in this situtation by POLICE and INTEL, not by having Marines patrolling the streets.

Do you NOT trust the government's OWN think tank?

Do you honestly believe that Bush and Cheyney and a boatload of neo-cons who never served understand how to win this thing better than RAND and the thinking generals of our military do?

Your loyalty to Bush and the neo-cons is misplaced if you're seriously interested in WINNING this war.

Here's what the commanding, thinking general in Iraq said....

The senior commander of multinational forces in Iraq warned Congress on Tuesday against removing "too many troops too quickly" and refused under stiff questioning to offer even an estimate of American force levels by the end of this year.

Those comments from General David Petraeus were met by sharp criticism from a senior Democrat, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, that the Bush administration had adopted "a war plan with no exit strategy."

As hearings to define the future course of American strategy in Iraq opened Tuesday morning, Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the American ambassador to Baghdad, described an Iraq that is scene to significant if still-fragile progress in security and politics. But they made that case without reference to the formal political benchmarks that defined their testimony last September.

Petraeus said that security progress has been "significant but uneven." Under questioning, he declined to estimate American troop levels beyond the withdrawal by July of five additional combat brigades sent to Iraq last year. And he acknowledged that the government's recent offensive in Basra was not sufficiently well-planned.

The security situation remained in flux, Petraeus said, in part because of the "destructive role Iran has played," and he said that "special groups" of Shiite radicals supported from Tehran posed the greatest immediate threat to security.
General resists timetable for withdrawal of troops in Iraq - International Herald Tribune