Iraq: What Would You Do?

Well, it looks like the Shi'ite has hit the fan, doesn't it?

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen bent on revenge burned mosques and homes in a Sunni enclave of Baghdad on Friday as Iraq's leaders pleaded for calm, a day after the worst bomb attack since the U.S. invasion.

Some 30 people were killed, police said, as suspected Shi'ite militiamen rampaged for hours, untroubled by a curfew enforced in the capital by U.S. and Iraqi forces after bombs killed 202 people in the Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City.

Throw Lebanon into the mix, which brings Syria and Iran into play, and the Middle-East is starting to look like ... the Middle-East, I guess.

Crittenden thinks Lebanon should be a second front.

Mark Tapscott at the Examiner feels there is no third way out of Iraq.

Meanwhile, as Patterico points out, we can't get the straight story on anything out of the MSM.

Drudge has some troubling headlines regarding Russia and Iran - air defense systems and a meeting with a top nuclear guy.

Were it up to me, I'd go full steam ahead. Increase troop levels as much as possible in Iraq to tamp down the violence and, more importantly, escalate the training of Iraqis while screening recruits as well as possible and executing those who fail to do their job by betraying the government.

And I'd make it clear to both Syria and Iran that if they don't stop destabilizing the region, I would unleash hell on them in the form of Cruise Missiles and high level bombings without putting a boot on the ground - including, if necessary, tactical nukes until their entire war fighting capability was gone.

Maybe I've had too much Holiday turkey and stuffing, but I'm growing weary of a bunch of chickens running our foreign policy.

Comments

[Layer Seven]

Iraqi casualties have skyrocketed due to the unfortunate democrat political gains in the US. Prior to this, the plan of sucking radical Islamic terrorists into the killing ground of Iraq was working perfectly. Al Qaeda claims we killed only 4000 of them; the real total is probably much higher. Without our chicken politicians, we would be tuning up the killing machine, I think.

It is also unfortunate that Washington and New York are convinced they will survive the next attack.

[warrewarrenbnb]

Don't worry Dan...

Your buddy Dick Cheney is in Saudi Arabia this morning reassuring the shieks that the insurgency in in it's "final throws"...and that he "believes we're doing the right thing" and that it's "full steam ahead" and that we should "stay the course".

He figures we'll be greeted as liberators in about a week or two tops...Personally I don't have any reason to doubt him...do you?

[Mark]

Foreign policy? I didn't know we had one. We do have some terrific slogans though.

[Norman Rogers]

Dan, the problem is that our political leaders have forgotten (or never learned) the primary goal of warfare -- to break the enemy's will. And, it's not just us. Israel suffers from the same disease.

We seem unable to understand that the ONLY way to win is to convince the enemy that we are more ruthless than they. Our Western way of war -- with great concern to prevent noncombatant casualties -- is seen as a weakness by those who have no love for life.

The only path to success is to demonstrate that we are willing to kill them all. And the joke is: that we are actually trying to prevent having to do precisely that. Should the nihilists succeed in detonating an atomic device in one of our cities, our gloves would come off and millions would die.

Israel is the first line of defense. If she would strike proportionately (not proportionally), and strive to kill ten or one hundred for one (and escalate geometrically) and let the devil take the whiny Euros -- the wheels would come off the self-styled Palestinians' bus. They continue to fight because they think they can win. They truly believe they can kill all the Jews.

If Israel would do this and if we would support them in the UN, this round of Islofacism would die out quickly. Israel may well have to depopulate Gaza and drive the survivors into Egypt (or bus them to the west bank and give the keys to Jordan).

If Israel would declare that Hezbollah IS Lebanon and Lebanon is Hezbollah and that any attack on Israel from within Lebanon's borders is an attack by the sovereign nation of Lebanon -- and if Israel would target civilians and civilian targets proportionately (at ten or one-hundred to one, for starters) for Israeli civilian casualties in such a conflict, no such attack would be forthcoming -- and none from Syria as well.

[Purple Avenger]

'insurgency in in it's "final throws"'

Perhaps Cheney has been paying attention to what's been going on in Ramadi and all that it implies?

http://www.fumento.com/military/ramadireturn.html

Its pretty clear you haven't been.

[yyy]

The army loses when it does not win. The insurgent wins when he does not lose.

Therefore the idea of 'breaking the enemies' will is moot unless you are going to kill hundreds of thousands of people, which would, in turn, created hundreds of thousands of potential terrorists so you would need to kill MILLIONS upon millions in order to "win"...

If we resorted to killing them to save them we, America, would not be the same country we are now, our place in the world would be irrevocably changed and we would be looking at terrorism without end, from ALL corners of the globe.

If Israel would make peace with the Palestinians, give them their land back, stop oppressing them then they wouldn't have any problems and they would be able to regain the moral high ground that they lost by doing just what you advocate...imposing collective punishment on civilian populations..you know, like the Nazi's did...

Israel ALREADY does kill at a dozens to one ratio and killed at a thousands to one ratio in Lebanon.

Radical islam does not drive the Palestinian, they are among the most educated and secular muslims on the planet.

Israel did target civilians in Lebanon, civilian infrastructure and civilains. They still failed.

War is not a zero sum game, especially 'war' that is against a non state actor.

You people are so stupid it is mind boggling.

What about Pakistan? Who do you think is keeping the Taliban afloat and hiding bin Laden...but oh yeah, Pakistan is our FRIEND as long as they throw us a couple of terrorists or innocent people they call terrorists.

It is very easy to paint your enemy as "evil" and very uplifting I suppose to say we should 'kill them all' because they deserve it, but that isn't reality.

If we go back to the kind of war you people appear to advocate, full out, kill everyone, women, children, burn their cities to the ground...spare no one, what does that make us, cause it sure doesn't make us a force for democracy and freedom throughout the world.

Over and out nutters.

[Purple Avenger]

"If Israel would make peace with the Palestinians, give them their land back, stop oppressing them then they wouldn't have any problems"

Ha, ha, ha, ha. The real yyy reveals itself.

[ajacksonian]

There is a way to stabilize Iraq... but it seems that America must be pushed to the brink of destruction before it turns to Jacksonians. And yet even now we can hear an 'Elite' or two starting to say a few things, here and there... learning to recognize what Jacksonians know by heart... everyone else comes to say how wondrous and strange this 'Global Village' is... and you hear such as me say: it is a Village, deal with it.

That is a scale-free concept of living: from the personal to the National. Simple but never simplistic in its enaction. To go forward you must, really, Go Forward. If you don't like the fact that the Enemy is doing something that saps your will, then change the parameters of the battle to sap HIS. Because this is not about Israel and Palestine. It is not even about America and Iraq. It isn't even about Islam, though their radicals are instrumental in the carnage.

We are in a Village. Trying to lead our lives and secure some freedom for Ourselves and Our Friends and Allies.

And the Barbarians have come seeking Empire with will and means to get it if not resisted.

An Ancient fight for civilization so YOU can have your rights.

Or live in slavery.

Your choice and best choose quickly. We have already been struck multiple times at home, in our lands, and against our armed forces... and that was BEFORE 9/11.

So, I must say that the way forward is Forward. And there is only one path to Stabilize Iraq and start to actually FIX the problem that was left to us from the 1920's. That way forward is obvious to me and quite some others. But we now doubt that America has any will left to survive and fight to Be Free. It is not Patriotism I call into question, but sense of survival.

And for all of that, we can still do it on the cheap, if we had any political will at all left.

http://ajacksonian.blogspot.com/2006/10/plan-to-stabilize-iraq.html

[cadfeld]

'insurgency in in it's "final throws"'
**********************************************

...its final "throws"?!?! WTF- how can
you discuss a topic when you can't even
spell it properly? Butchering the English
language, just like "Dubya" (gag me)- do
you also say, "NUKE-YA-LAR"?

throe (thr) Pronunciation Key
n.
A severe pang or spasm of pain, as in childbirth. See Synonyms at pain.
throes A condition of agonizing struggle or trouble: a country in the throes of economic collapse.

[yyy]

I would unleash hell on them in the form of Cruise Missiles and high level bombings without putting a boot on the ground - including, if necessary, tactical nukes until their entire war fighting capability was gone.

---------

Hmm, why stop there? Add France, The Netherlands, China to the list...we could just nuke the entire rest of the world and then take over on a global scale.

Use tactical nukes against countries that have not invades our country? that are not threatening to invade our country? just because they don't like us and our special friend Israel?

Yeah, good idea, Dan.

You give the term moron a bad name.

[warrewarrenbnb]

Hey Cadfield the whole "final throws" thing was satirical...Read between the lines. I am not a Cheney supporter. Go back and read the post again and this time read it properly.

[Jason Coleman]

What would I do? I'd begin demanding some accountability from the media.

The events that this very post are based on have turned out to be false, AGAIN.

Time and time and time again, we have a media that takes whatever hyperbolic, false or invented from wholecloth story and runs it up the pole. A few days later, after the news cycle is over on it, they quietly pull back and admit that the sourcing was bad, the facts were not checked, and in some cases that they had every reason to believe that the event was completely contrived for their benefit and never happened in the real world.

We've got a media in this nation and others that has taken it upon themselves to actually become in effect combatants and work against any efforts to resolve conflicts.

Like the story this post was based on, the facts aren't being given to the people, and the items that are given are not only largely incorrect, they are contradictory to the only sane courses that one could undertake.

What would I do? I'd begin publically calling out the media and, if necessary, begin freezing out their access when they publish material known to be false or when they refuse to correct the record they falsely entered into the public sphere.

The internet has gving many who wish to learn the truth the means to do so and critical thinkers can get facts that remain facts throughout the news cycle. Those who are not critical thinkers, the merely partisan or the unwillingly ignorant are kept in the dark and fed false information to create a distored image of the world.

So that's what I'd do, I'd get the real facts out there and not allow the media to continue to distort, hyperbolize, fabricate and blatentely lie about the situations we face in Iraq and beyond.

--Jason

[Oscar Lee Chavers III]

I personally think that this is another vietnam. I am retired Navy and of coarse was in vietnam. I am proud of my service to my country and still would do or go where ever my country orders but in saying that I believe we (the government) have lost the IDEAS! of our forefathers and the saying of don't tread on me! I understand we were attacted on 9/11 but it was because we were messing with them first, just like vietnam. We need to let countries take care of themselves but let the world know that if you mess with us then we will nuke you right off the bat and be done with it the same way we ended the war with Japan! I personally think it's all a money thing anyway. GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!