Five years? FIVE YEARS?!!!

In tomorrow's Parade magazine (the free mag that comes in your Sunday paper) retired Army General Tommy Franks is quoted thusly:

"Franks believes that five years is a realistic timeline for the United States to be involved in Iraq, noting that the country has to dig itself out of a "30-year hole".


Five years!!!!

 

look how long we've had troops in other countries...5 years seems like a short, insignificant time to me.

 

In most other countries we don't have troops getting wiped out every day!


FIVE YEARS!!!!!!!!!

 

...Misson accomplished! Reins turned over to Iraqi government!

Didn't the general get the memo??



We'll be lucky if it's ONLY five years.

 

5 years is nothing, We are still in Germany and still in Japan.

 

grievous, nobody is shooting at us in Germany and Japan.

I believe someone already mentioned that.

Time seems to lengthen when there is metal flashing by your head.

 

Uh you think after Germany and Japan surrendered all attacks just magically stopped? Well things didn't work that way.

 

Ummm, don't no. Wasn't around. And I don't recall saying anything like that. Or making any point that would lead to that conclusion.

 

We've already been there for two years or so, that's only three more.........

And besides, that's only one guy's opinion, not like it means anything. Bush has already said that when the new gov't asks us to leave, we will leave. But right now there are still security problems and what borders on mutinies within the Iraqi ranks when it comes to fighting insurgents. We leave now, and Iraq ends up ten times worse than under Saddam.

 

There's an old Time article about this as well.

You know, it's sadly ironic that the same millitants who blow themselves up to be liberated of the troops would get us out faster if they calmed down.

 

of course, the plan is to be in as many places as possible.

 

At last count, the US was building no less than twelve PERMANENT bases in Iraq, so there is no plan to leave there anytime in the next TWENTY years, much less five. This situation is a joke. And if one more idiot brings up Germany and Japan - as if the Iraq situation is really anywhere remotely similar to that - I'm going to puke.


The US history SINCE WWII has been one of supporting barbaric puppet regimes, oppressive warlords, looting the third world of its natural resources, and fueling civil and guerrilla war. The US record in the middle east, Africa, Asia, and South America is pathetic. We don't have a good record at this. The people who engineered WWII are mostly LONG DEAD. It's OVER. This is not the world after WORLD WAR TWO, morons. Get over it.

 

You mean this isn't the same world as the the world after WW2? I'm confused, when did the world stop being that world? Oh wait, I'm talking to Willow, Fuck You. You are probably the worst excuse for a human i have met. If you aren't happy in the US, get the fuck out. People like you should be labeled traitors and hung.

 

Chill, Skip. GrievousAnal was rightly banned for using inflammatory and insulting language but let's not give people the idea that anyone with an opposing viewpoint will be banned.

I believe the general was talking about 5 more years in Iraq. That's 5 more years (a conservative estimate made by a conservative) of our troops being shot at and blown up by an "enemy" that hits and runs, then hides in plain sight.

And how will it end? Will the insurgents ever stop attacking? Will their numbers dwindle or grow? Will we eventually pull out and turn control over to the Iraqi government? If so will they be successful or will it turn out like Vietnam with the new order being overthrown or falling into corruption and chaos?

Or are we there to stay as Willow predicts? (or are we there to stay until Iraq's oil reserves are depleted?)

How many presidents will it take to clean up the mess this one president has made?

 

I haven't agreed with every ban Skip has made, but I do on GA. At least for me, I visit these forums to get up-to-the-minute news from various news sources that various people post, like you did Newo. It pisses me off when some twit like GA throws in a totally insulting post and wastes my time when I am trying to read authentic opinions from all sides of the political spectrum.

Just like our country is divided, these forums have become extremely divided and sometimes it's good to "clean" them up a bit and rid this internet community of juvenile antagonists.

 

What did you think of the Parade article as a whole? I thought the guy was honest about how things were going, even if I don't agree with some of his beliefs - like he said that terrorism isn't our fault, it's the terrorists fault. Well, it is and it isn't. The terrorists don't repsect certian aspects of American culture, particularly imperalism and materialism. I don't condone the terrorists actions - or the two 'isms' for that matter - but I think that "they hate our freedom" doesn't really cut it for a motive. I think people need to learn exactly why anti-American terrorists are commiting these acts, not just ignore it or brush it off like it's no big deal.

 

First off, thanks Skip. Wish it hadn't come to that, but you put the rule out there for all to see. It's still sad, though.

Grievous Angel, The Silky Way, Real American, et.al., (and I know you all are reading this, cuz that's what you do) it is a stupid thing to say. It just shows your ass in glowing neon more than anything else you say. It also shows a lack of depth and veracity in your arguments. You have nothing else to say so you throw that small-minded nugget at us. Sad. Do you think for one minute that if we really didn't love this country we would be here? We DO love this country. We don't love what some people are doing to it, with it. We want to make it better. For you. For us. For the world. We aren't going to leave. We are going to stay. Here. In OUR country. And work to make it a better place.

 

What did US occupation do to Bosnia? To Kosovo? What did British military intervention do for Sierra Leone? What did US intervention do for Kurdish Iraq after 1991?


While these successes may be "inconvenient" to those pushing for immediate abandonment of Iraq, they remain real.