Uncertainty Looms Over U.S. Leaving Iraq

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041031/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_leaving_iraq&cid=544&ncid=1480


<snip>

Both candidates say they are committed to defeating the insurgents, building an Iraqi force that can defend the country and putting Iraq on the road to democracy. What is not clear is what either would do in terms of U.S. troops if those conditions were not achieved fully.


Could U.S. troops ever withdraw, if the insurgency were not crushed but only weakened? How good would Iraqi security forces have to be to be good enough to defend their country? Would it be enough to have a stable Iraqi government if it were elected by only part of the country?


One question no candidate would want to touch is what would happen should the violence escalate. Could there come a point when the situation appeared hopeless, U.S. public opinion had turned against it and the president would have at least to consider a withdrawal or redeployment of U.S. forces?


"No president wants to cut-and-run on purely good policy grounds, but all presidents realize that if you lose public support, you could be forced to do what you don't want to do," said James M. Lindsay of the Council on Foreign Relations.

[Maple]

1. Quagmire

"A quagmire (from "quake" + "mire") is, literally, shaky, miry ground; as a political term used to describe a foreign military campaign in which there is either no foreseeable possibility of victory or the objectives are unclearly defined, and at the same time no clear exit strategy has been formulated in the absence of victory. The military campaign is likened to a kind of swamp or marsh in which the warring nation is unable to remove itself.

Typically, a quagmire occurs when a major power attempts with little success to subdue a foreign guerrilla insurgency. Often matters of national pride or belief in military invincibility are the cause of the lack of an exit strategy. The classic examples of quagmires were the American involvement in the Vietnam War and the Soviet war in Afghanistan. It is often humorously suggested that the best way to resolve the military impasse associated with a quagmire is to simply "declare victory and go home."
http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/quagmire

[Gyre]

2. So fucking what?

You find out that the person you're banging has AIDs, what do you do? Pull out RIGHT NOW! So what if their feelings get hurt.

Once we're out of there, the UN will step in and pick up the pieces and we can pay them the billions that we're now lavishing on Halliburton.

Gyre

[starroute]

3. How *do* you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?

???

[leftchick]

4. exactly....

:(