How about being stuck in an airplane on a transatlantic trip next to a person who's having problems with gas? Well, maybe it is not quite as bad as war, but it's pretty bad.
Who said the plan- by the insiders who make the plan- was ever to "win" this war? Anyone should have known that occupying Iraq was not a route to "winning". We've got some nice military bases set up, we can observe our opposition much more closely- if Congress doesn't pull the US out, I think the plan was to be there indefinitely.
Willfull stupidity and self-delusion are WORSE than a military action the puts an end to genocidal policies, the use of a nerve gas on your own people, mass graves, abbatoirs that double as torture chambers, and prisons that make Gitmo look like the Augusta National Golf Club? Ya think? You know, you oughta consider selling your moral compass on E-Bay. It could fetch millions.
I was on a flight from Fort Lauderdale to St Louis recently where a poor old man kept shitting his pants.
case in point... http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/19042006/6/n-world-teachers-beheaded-baghdad-students.html
Wow, terrorists are using marketing techniques. Wonder what will be the next 'great idea' to expose the cause.
Yeah, good thing we also freed those people in the Sudan. And North Korea. And the dozen other countries with oppressive, homicidal governments. Clearly human rights are foremost on our agenda. This is not actually satire. Pro-war!
That's what I am leaning toward as well. Add to that if, and I stress if, there is a plan to break up Iraq then what could be better than letting them kill each other for a few years, and by that time, we can all raise our hands in the air, and collectively reach the agreement that these people just can't get along, so let's divide and seperate them. How long can we stand by and let these people kill each other???
But the split can't happen because it would result in war and ethnic clensing in an attempt by each side to control oil-rich areas. And that means we can't get that wonderful oil out of Iraq. Which I have said all along is a good enough reason to go to war in and of itself. And I was also quite pleased that Rumsfeld's plan to invade without any burning of oil wells worked out so well. I wasn't sure it was possible. Yes, I was representing on the pro-war tip before it was the style as well! I am quite the trend setter.
One thing that helps in grasping the mentality of many "pro-war" Americans is realizing that they don't actually care much about the conduct or outcome of the war. This is clearly demonstrated by their unwillingness to criticize the obvious incompetence and corruption that have jeopardized the war effort itself, and done great harm to the future of Iraq and its people. What they do care about is maintaining a fantasy world in which George W. Bush is this generation's Winston Churchill, and in which supporting Bush makes you a brave soldier in a glorious crusade. As long as they can keep that belief intact, the actual war itself is pretty much irrelevant.
George is influenced by the likes of current World Bank President, Paul Wolfowitz, but I don't blame either of them. Call me an idealist, but I believe agressive foreign politics, idealogies such as the reverse-domino theory, are rather effective in protecting the US hegemony. Of course, I understand that this argument is flawed, hypocritical and whatnot (even I don't want to believe it) but can we really blame a country that seeks world domination and to maintain it? Remember, the Cold War ended only 20 years ago. The US had a brief 20 years (or some would argue 50, after the WW's) of glory and she wants to keep it that way. I doubt it will happen but schucks. Whatever goes.
Quick? You have hit on one of the major shortcomings of this administration. They are so f'in slow to act. We have seen it after the Tsunami. We saw it after Katrina. We have consistently seen it in different contexts of this war. The "conclusion" that you reference should have been reached before we started a war. Premptive wars are incredibly dicey issues for a country like ours. Here we sit three years after the start of the war, and there is still no clear picture of why we went in other than to free the Iraqi people. That would not have been enough to sell this to America in 2003, and is likely a big part of why bush's support for the way he has handled Iraq is in the tank.