Gen. David H. Petraeus explains security improvements in Sadr City while giving an aerial tour of Baghdad Monday to Sen.'s Barack Obama, Jack Reed and Chuck Hagel. 21 July 2008 (Wikipedia).
Task & Purpose: We Asked Gen. Petraeus Whether The Iraq War Was Really Worth It. Here’s What He Said.
Fifteen years of war have turned Iraqi cities such as Ramadi, Fallujah, and Mosul into ruins. Iraq remains as divided as ever along sectarian lines, despite the deaths of more than 4,500 U.S. troops and untold numbers of Iraqis.
U.S. troops remain in Iraq to help advise and assist Iraqi forces as they try to prevent ISIS from launching yet another insurgency. Meanwhile, Iran has flooded the country with thousands of proxy fighters, giving it a large say in what the government of Iraq does post-ISIS.
This wasn’t the Iraq that was supposed to emerge when U.S. troops crossed the berm from Kuwait to Iraq in March 2003. Nor is this the Iraq that troops who trounced al Qaeda during the surge bled for. There are few tangible signs of success, and Iraq’s future is still unclear.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: With hindsight the answer to the above question is an easy one .... the answer is no. But apparently some .... like former General Petraeus .... believe it was worth it.
16 comments:
It was worth it. We almost won.
The Obummer came in and gave it away.
The U.S. went by an old play book. De-Nazification.
Seeing what happened to Stauffener's children and other accounts the DeNazification playbook has to be taken with a grain of salt.
Across the board De-Baathificaiton by firing all police and army may have been and probably was a mistake. It is a what-if and it is hard to know for sure.
"We almost won...." Aiz begins his descent into the mush-headed void that our senile, TEEVEE obsessed, donkey-brained Pres. already inhabits.
Next thing you'll have us believe is that we really won in Vietnam, but those darn pols and a pusillanimous public stabbed our brave troopz in the back.
There is one word to describe Petraeus: Loser.
Anon,
It is easy to look at the U.S. casualty rate before and after the Surge & The Awakening. Perhaps you do not like to look at such statistics.
Perhaps you are with Al Qaeda who took over hospitals while denying the facilities to civilians. Perhaps you were still with Al Qaeda while the car bombed souks (open markets) and the wounded were treated in American hospitals especially so, since th Al Qaeda had the Iraqi hospital under their control for their use.
Perhaps you are unaware that that the tribes of the Awakening turned away form the cold blooded murderers of Al Qaeda.
Perhaps you caught some social disease and now have early onset Alzheimers.
"Next thing you'll have us believe is that we really won in Vietnam"
We did win.
The Viet Cong never had a a unit over battalion size after Tet.
The battlefield defeat was turned into a political victory by the Dims.
The War after Tet was carried out by the NVA. They were from the North another country. They were freed up by Mao putting 300 to 800 K Chinese troops in North Vietnam. Mao had conviction, the Dim pols of the DNC did not.
Are you going to argue there were not hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops in North Vietnam? I can read about, but I also know about from an unimpeachable source.
Many of us knew instinctively from the very beginning the 2nd Iraq war was a huge mistake, based as it was on misinformation or rather, lies. On the surface as justification the war used the emotional response to 9-11, with the fatal flaw that the target, Saddam Hussain, though not a nice person, was not involved in 9-11. The very sinister aspect to it was how the vaunted US Free Press plus congress went along with the war plans without raising too many questions, leading to the larger question of who or what is really leading the USA, that Congress and the Press both obey without question.
North Vietnam achieved their goal of a unified, independent nation.
They Won.
As Pres. mush-head surrounds himself with Neocon war mongers and TeeVee personalities (Hannity for ambassador to South Korea! Why Not!) the question is will we get ME war 3: the bombing of Iran? Pompeo thinks we knock 'em out with as little as 2000 sorties! Makes sense.
Said nobody.
"(Hannity for ambassador to South Korea! Why Not!)"
No thanks, we need Hannity where he is, exposing the truth of the FBI-gate scandals despite heavy pressure brought to silence him
I like that "Neocon"
Just throw that around.. Just saying it proves your point.
I bet if I reign a bell you would salivate.
Genius can you a) define neocon and b) prove that whoever is one?
The 'victory' was based on opportunity. They (Ho Chi Minh) didn't not want the offensive, but a faction did. They did not know that they won until they turned on TV. Any winning was based on a lack of resolve not battlefield results.
heavy pressure to silence Hannity? name sources and instances. He is the "star" of Fox and a direct link for advice to Trump
It is as if people do not remember the headlines from 1997 through 2000. They do not remember what Democrat leader said at the time.
But maybe some commenters here were watching Canadian, European or Russian TV and not U.S. news at that time.
In 2003 - not even 2 years after 9/11, there was no way the US could tolerate Hussein or his goulash sons as a continuance of the Iraqi regime. Bear in mind the war was won in 2007. Obama got into office and unraveled every gain we achieved. Even as recently as 2010 there were reality shows (Top Gear UK, for instance) filming in Iraq and Syria. People were voting. Then Obama’s cowardly, idiotic surrender gave rise to ISIS in Syria and the crumbling of the Iraq sistuatikn.
By 2011 Syria was engulfed in civil war, Iraq was in chaos and we were redeploying troops en mass all over again to clean up the mess Obama made of it all. Now some 500,000 Syrians are dead and likely as many Iraqis. Mr and Mr. pathetic “Noble Peace Prize” Obama is busy rewriting the history of his godawful presidency.
Why did we go into Iraq?
The consequence ...taliban recouped in Afghanistan and Iran became major power after Iraq no longer a countervailing force
And no need for snark from you know who
Iran supplied Al Qaeda, Shia and Sunni terrorists with factory made IEDs, other weapons, training, free transit, and money.
If they went against the the U.S. they would be afraid of a weakened Sadam why?
Given the demographics of Iraq and a Iran's willingness to fight the u.s. they would not have fought Sadam?
"and Iran became major power after Iraq no longer a countervailing force"
What does 'recoup' mean?
The U.S. always had a problem in Afghanistan because the Pakistanis are such great backstabbers. The have provided money, training, supplies, intel and embedded operatives to the Taliban since 2001. That was was going to happen whether were were in a Iraq or not.
For the cost of Iraq we got Libya, too.
Then came Obama and messed them both up.
Consider Libya. After Gadaffi gave up WMDs and terrorism, we had not reason to go to war with them after 2003, but Obozo did anyway.
As for snark I see you are quiet as a church mouse after you got called on your apologia for the communists running Venezuela into the ground. Maybe just maybe you can take a look at a motor and see that it has windings and learn something about maintenance of motors and generators. Then maybe you won't be so quick to give the communists the benefit if the doubt. But you are more likely to find new free nude pictures rather than to read up on electrical stuff.
Nope
We were doing great till bush invaded Iraq
From then on Iran rose in power and Iraq no longer could offset them
Phuck thee misfit
Iran had a nuclear program before 2003.
Iran was heavily invested in supporting Hamas and Hezbollah before 2003 to be used as pawns/proxies.
Anzio, here are but a few.
https://thinkprogress.org/first-advertiser-pulls-ads-from-hannity-584e1e4ce5e9/
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/real-time/USAA-faces-backlash-after-pulling-ads-from-Sean-Hannitys-Fox-News-show-.html
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hannity-boycott-20170922-story.html
FOX sponsors pull Hannity adds over show about DNC staffer Seth Rich unsolved murder
FOX sponsors pressure Hannity over show about Judge Roy More Interview
You better believe there are behind the scenes threats for Hannity to drop the FBI-Obama-Gate FISA warrants scandals. The truth behind this story threatens the Obama legacy and opens doors for unpleasant truths about the shadow government of the US
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