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Yet Another Anon

It's simple, the Rumsfeld strategy failed to commit enough troops to hold territory and in his smugness, Donald Rumsfeld never seems to have accepted that in both Afghanistan and Iraq that if he had committed more forces earlier then things would have gone more smoothly and that where there are still problems more troops focused in the areas where the respective countries Security Forces are weak will speed on getting things right.

stephan shakespeare

Losing in Iraq - that is, suffering higher losses and withdrawing without having achieved stability - would be a massive blow to American prestige abroad, and would severely reduce any possibility of engaging in foreign campaigns in the future even when they may be necessary. America would be severely hampered and unable to promote its interests when the next crisis arises. This is stating the obvious, but one must remember the huge liability of failure and withdrawal. "Cutting one's losses" in the short term would only pile up losses in the long term.


The Al Qaedas of the world learned a valuable lesson in the 1980's and 1990's about America's unwillingness to fight and choked us on our own dust. Withdrawal hands Jihadists and Talibanists a motivational tool for like-minded 7th century progressives with computers to attack what appears to be a whimpering, fat, self-loathing nation.

For those who are constantly decrying the war and praising the troops, it squanders and mocks the purpose for which U.S.lives were sacrificed. To withdraw troops now would be similar in effect to 9/11. We would lose another 3000 people to terrorism.

I don't think the current problem is the result of not having enough troops at the outset. I think supply lines were compromised by fearful Turks resulting in lost time and opportunity. The immediate release of Iraqi prisoners was a serious mistake. The more recent failure to commit sufficient forces has compounded the earlier errors.

But now, the best solution is to saturate the area with troops and "settle" the insurgent issue. It's the old "broken window" theory applied to a combat zone. If we don't fix it, things are going to get a hell of a lot worse for all of us.

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