Iraq vet? Thanks for your service, Oneguy. My heart goes out to folks like you who are put in harm’s way by politicians for one inane reason or another. National defense is a bs reason for foreign wars. We have enough nukes to destroy any country from our front porch.
Well, nukes are a bit much for the situations we get into. Just a little bit, though. Haha.
The Middle East is populated by savages and that is why they have an oppressive religion and brutal dictators to keep them under control. Trump must close our embassy and pull out of Iraq. We don’t have an end game there. If Trump comes on as a tough guy, he had better be brutal like Saddam. Nancy Pelosi is praying for that to happen. One dead Iraqi protestor shot by our boys will be the end of the Trump presidency.
Very well said except for closing down the embassy. I don’t think we should do that. We should maintain diplomatic ties with Iraq (and Iran) but cease all military operations there.
If we maintain an embassy (even a stupidly spent $750 Million embassy) in a sovereign nation that does not want us there, we are going to need military operations to keep it open. Iraq is between itself and a hard place. They don’t want us there, but they need us, but they don’t want to be a battle ground for Iran v. the USA.
Oneguy, I am starting to think that your military strategizing abilities are not even superior to the incompetent middle management of the military that you told us about.
Srees say the darndest things. Like accusing me of being “an activist that just wants to tear things down.” My dad was in WWII in the Pacific. He spent most of my childhood institutionalized.
That’s rough, sorry to hear that.
If I recall correctly Oneguy was in Desert Storm or maybe the subsequent Iraq invasion. That was combat. I do recall Oneguy saying something to the effect that veterans think that the public’s putting veterans on a pedestal these days is a bit much.
I went to Iraq and Afghanistan, in combat in both. Desert Storm happened when I was in like 3rd grade, but crazily enough when I deployed to Iraq the first time a little over a decade later we all talked about the childhood memories of watching it on the news. It was was eerie.
Regarding veterans — hell yes, there’s way too much fawning over veterans and military worship in general.
If we maintain an embassy (even a stupidly spent $750 Million embassy) in a sovereign nation that does not want us there, we are going to need military operations to keep it open. Iraq is between itself and a hard place. They don’t want us there, but they need us, but they don’t want to be a battle ground for Iran v. the USA.
Oneguy, I am starting to think that your military strategizing abilities are not even superior to the incompetent middle management of the military that you told us about.
Iraq does not want us completely out of sight, out of mind.
Iraq does not want us assassinating Iranian military and political leaders on their supposedly sovereign land. If they kick us out, again, they will be completely reliant on their incompetent selves and Iran to protect them from another re-emergence of Isis. Well I guess the good old Kurds (who we betray), would still effectively fight ISIS. But the Shiites and Sunnis don’t care much for Kurds either.
But perhaps their ambivalence re: USA presence in Iraq will not preclude us maintaining the $750 M embassy. So we won’t have to destroy it or leave it for the Iranians or some other adversary. We will still need a significant military presence in or near the embassy, or the Iranians can take it. All American citizens have already been advised to leave Iraq.