Time to Bail?

[Chips Rafferty]

You'd be wrong. You can find the justification in we're going to have to fight them sooner or later. Now while we're there seems like a better idea than later.

You can find the justification in we're going to have to fight them sooner or later

Why?

 

[Gunny]

Why?

Perhaps you can name the ME conflict Iran DOESN'T have its hands in?

 

[Chips Rafferty]

Perhaps you can name the ME conflict Iran DOESN'T have its hands in?

So?

Why can't they appoint themselves as world policemen too?

What is it that makes America's claim to interfere in others affairs so much more righteous than theirs?

At least Eye-wran is interfering its own backyard.

 

[uscitizen]

We do NOT get much oil from IRAQ. What part of that do you NOT understand?

what part of the oil market do you not understand ?
We don't but other countries do, and if they don't then they want the oil we are getting now, from wherever we get it from. Price goes up, etc....

There is only X amount of oil being pumped from the ground, in a very few years the demand will outstrip the supply....

 

[Shogun]

Is the oil all in one place ?

I don't recall that OIL was supposed to be the motivation in invading iraq.

 

[uscitizen]

I don't recall that OIL was supposed to be the motivation in invading iraq.

well it is the only motivation left, all the other reasons have been exposed as false.
Bush just could not sell the real reason.

 

[mattskramer]

GMAFB. Did I say a THING about executing noncombatants? Your attempted comparison is intellectually dishonest.

Those people in Vietnam might have been aiding supporting the enemy. If we had let them live, there is no telling what they might have done. They might have informed the enemy about us. Shouldn’t we play it safe and blow every suspect in Iraq away. Heck. Let’s just not hold back any punches. Let them have it. If anyone looks the slightest bit suspicious we better not take any chances.

No. My comparison, though extreme, is valid. It shows what can happen if there are no safeguards or oversight in place.

 

[Shogun]

OIL is not a worthy motivation for invading a nation.


if that is the case then we are no better than any spanish conquistador looking for gold in the new world.

 

[uscitizen]

OIL is not a worthy motivation for invading a nation.


if that is the case then we are no better than any spanish conquistador looking for gold in the new world.

Agreed, but that is the way I see it. Our greed is good movement combined with $100/bbl oil in the near future will make this sellable to the US public.
Or so the plan goes.

Vietnam started out over Rubber.

 

[Superlative]

"...Insisting that US foreign policy of the past six years has clearly failed, a left-leaning Washington think-tank is calling for the adoption of a comprehensive new approach to international relations called "Just Security" in which the US would act "as a global partner, not a global boss". Among other features, "Just Security" calls for reducing US military spending by a third, or some US$213 billion; carrying out a "rapid" withdrawal of US forces from Iraq;...."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IF21Ak01.html

 

[Superlative]

.........The repercussions of the second Samarra bombing have so far been limited to a few attacks on Sunni targets in Baghdad and Basra. This time, the Iraqi government managed to largely contain reprisals by quickly imposing curfews in Baghdad and other cities and dispatching hundreds of troops to Samarra.

Nevertheless, observers warn that if additional measures are not taken, the latest Samarra incident - in which no one was killed but the mosque's famed golden minarets were destroyed - could spark a new round of sectarian bloodshed in the country.

"The Samarra bombing shows that the sectarian conflict in Iraq is far from over," Sami Shorish, a political analyst from Irbil, told Inter Press Service (IPS). "If concrete political steps toward national reconciliation are not taken immediately and effectively, the Samarra attack and similar incidents will very negatively affect Iraq's security and political situation - in fact, much worse than what we are witnessing today."

The bombing is considered a serious blow to the ongoing efforts of the Iraqi and US governments to curtail violence in the country. Despite an ongoing security operation since last February - originally codenamed "Operation Imposing Law" - a recent Pentagon report to Congress admits the level of violence in Iraq has remained "relatively unchanged". Iraqi and American commanders concede that they only control 40% of the capital Baghdad.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IF21Ak03.html

 

[Superlative]

More than 2 million Iraqis are seeking refuge among their own religious or ethnic communities after being driven from their homes by sectarian bloodshed.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR estimates a further 1.5 million Iraqis have crossed into neighbouring countries like Syria and Jordan where they are officially classed as refugees.

Jointly, this tide has created the largest exodus in the region since the Palestinians were uprooted when Israel was founded in 1948. However, the Iraqis who remain inside the country may be the most vulnerable.

UNHCR's Iraq Support Unit coordinator Andrew Harper said that the security risks of operating in Iraq complicated getting aid to these people and has masked the scale of their hardship.

"We don't know the real extent of the humanitarian crisis in Iraq because people or humanitarian aid workers just can't get out to Diyala or other provinces where security is so poor," said Harper, speaking from Geneva.

More than 1,000 Iraqis outside the southern city of Najaf are enduring their country's searing summer in a tented camp with no electricity or running water, where midday temperatures can easily reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/features/?id=21159

 

[Annie]

Some are trying to 'surge' the 'surge':

http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/230793.php

June 20, 2007
Recycling the Dead

Just eight days ago, in advance of the now-engaged campaign in Baquba, Italian-based "news" site Uruknet re-posted in full an article by The Peoples Voice, a site dedicated, according to the masthead, to "Environmental, political, and social justice issues."

The People's Voice post attempts to re-raise the specter of the "illegal" use of Mark 77 firebombs and white phosphorus ordnance that they and other questionable media outlets claimed were used against civilians in the 2004 assault on Fallujah and in the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003. The article features three graphic pictures of victims that the site intones were killed with firebombs and white phosphorus.

There's a funny thing about at least two of those three pictures, however.

The first image they use in line with comments about the use of Mark 77 firebombs in 2003 was actually taken in Fallujah in 2004, following the American assault on that city, and was featured in the Italian-made documentary Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre that I roundly debunked in November of 2005.

As I stated at the time about this photo:

Body 3. 9:38 Extremely decomposed remains, cause of death undetermined. No apparent burn marks on the body or clothes.

Body 3 referred to the order of appearance of the remains, and 9:38 corresponds to when the photo was shown in the documentary. Interestingly enough, while the People's Voice leave the reader to infer that this body was the victim of a firebomb, the Italian documentary claimed that this body had been killed by white phosphorus. Details, details...