Murtha Was Right

[vyo476]

Congrats, Armchair. It's been almost a month since one of your posts made me feel physically ill. Good points all.

 

[bokile]

ahhahaha

ArmChair, our presence in Iraq has damaged the terrorists capabilities. We've killed their General (Zarqawi), killed hundreds of their leaders, eliminated a lot of their training facilities, put their leader (OBL) on the run, etc.

Should we leave, we take the pressure off of AQ and allow them to regroup and re-equip to pre-2003 strength.

In my estimation, we need to keep the pressure on the Islamic fundamentalists until they are no longer a threat and of course, this entails extending the war against terrorism into Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Iran...

Bush supports terrorisam in Kosovo, how about that

http://www.rastko.org.yu/kosovo/crucified/default.htm

 

[bokile]

I don't even know what this means. It sounds like a bush talking point to me.


You know, everytime someone brings up how supposedly Zarqawi was a big dude behind all trouble in Iraq, the more it reminds me of a bad cop movie. Every cop movie has the same plot: they track down Mister Big and the crime ring gets broken. Then you read the real crime news and there is no Mister Big. It's a million little muggers and thugs, with no organization at all. Nobody puts that in a script because it's too depressing. If the problem is just one guy, you can beat it by killing or capturing him. If it's a million little nobodies, you're doomed.

Zarqawi was a nobody, strictly small-time.

I agree on most of what you have said, but Osama is still walking freely

 

[USMC the Almighty]

ArmChair--

Zarqawi created al Qaeda in Iraq. Not only was killing him a great symbolic victory, but it was important for practical reasons. He was their general. We was the link between bin Laden and AQI.

He also holds the distinction for being more responsible for Iraq's secterian violence then any other single person.

Your downplaying of Zarqawi's importance sounds strikinglyl similar to al Sadr's claims.

 

[SW85]

You guys are also forgetting the effects the war has had outside Iraq. Did you forget that Qadafi disarmed out of a publicly-stated fear of being forced to disarm by the U.S.? Or that Syria ceased its occupation of democratic Lebanon? The mere fact that millions of Iraqis risked their lives in turning out to vote is progress in its own right.

 

[ArmChair General]

ArmChair--

Zarqawi created al Qaeda in Iraq. Not only was killing him a great symbolic victory, but it was important for practical reasons. He was their general. We was the link between bin Laden and AQI.

He also holds the distinction for being more responsible for Iraq's secterian violence then any other single person.

Your downplaying of Zarqawi's importance sounds strikinglyl similar to al Sadr's claims.

You are so denying reality. I would suggest you read up on Zarqawi's bio a little bit. Making like he was some Mister Big of the Iraq insurgency is sheer nonsense. Once again, the real reason we kept hearing so much about the Z-man, all those long articles on his childhood, school chums, favorite color, favorite IED etc, was because both sides, the US Army PR corps and Al Quaeda's press corps, had reason to build up this little Jordanian extra as the second coming of General Giap. Our interests and Al Q's dovetailed perfectly here: we wanted to pin a local, Iraqi-manned, neighborhood-based insurgency on an outside agitator like Zarqawi, and Al Quaeda wanted to show its donors in Pakistan and the Gulf that it was the real force behind all the fuss in Iraq.

But hell, don't take my word for it. Heres a Post article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040900890_pf.html

 

[ArmChair General]

You guys are also forgetting the effects the war has had outside Iraq. Did you forget that Qadafi disarmed out of a publicly-stated fear of being forced to disarm by the U.S.? Or that Syria ceased its occupation of democratic Lebanon? The mere fact that millions of Iraqis risked their lives in turning out to vote is progress in its own right.

Actually I think you are the one who isn't looking at the effects the war has had outside Iraq.

You have to start with a close-up of the region, then change magnification to look at the world picture. At a regional level the big winner is obvious: Iran. In fact, Iran wins so big in this war that I've already said that Dick Cheney's DNA should be checked out by a reputable lab, because he has to be a Persian mole.

Another way countries can win in a regional war like this is from the money flooding in. That's one way to beat an insurgency: bribe it. Unfortunately, the two neighboring states likely to benefit from the Iraq war are...yup, those twin towers of evil, Syria and Iran. Just imagine how much money is flowing into their border provinces right now. Need any U.S.-issue supplies, weapons, toilet paper, or GPS units cheap? Just ask at any bazaar in Damascus or Tehran. Uncle Sam's guarantee of quality - fell off the back of a two-and-a-half ton truck.

See, this is why I keep thinking Cheney's got to be an Iranian mole. How could he not see that a war in Iraq benefits noncombatant neighboring states? He had to know. He can't be that stup - Wait, I withdraw the comment.

When you zoom farther out to look at the global picture, You see that Iran is the big time short term winner, and in the long run, you see China and India as winnders.

While we flounder around in the Dust Bowl, they've been running up their reserves, putting the money into infrastructure and bullion. The moment you wait for in a setup like this is the inevitable alliance between the regional winner and the global winners. And voila, it's already happened: In February Iran and India signed a pipeline deal sending Iranian oil to the exploding Indian market, bypassing Bush's Saudi/U.S. petro-outpost. If it weren't for Pakistan, the pipeline would already be in place. And as you might have guessed, Iran and India are talking about how easily the pipeline can be looped over the Himalayas to China - an overland route invulnerable to U.S. sea power.