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Originally posted by InfX708:
I don't think it is possible for someone who has never been there to grasp the reality of the GWOT. Since the Iraq invasion, there have been zero act of terrorism on the U.S. Iraq's borders were/are porous - not gonna get in an arguement over that. Everyone that has had a beef with the US has gathered there enmass. Now, which would you prefer - carbombs in Baghdad or carbombs in New York? RPGs fired at police in Mosul or bombs at police stations in LA? Is Iraq a shitty place right now? You better believe it. Is it better than fighting terrorist at home? I think most Americans would believe so. That's the reason we are over there, but that be made a policy. Think about how bad that would look - we don't want to fight in our back yard, so we are gonna do it in yours. The worst thing about the GWOT is that most Americans, and most of the world is too worried about how the war is won. They would rather see dead soldiers than dead Iraqis. I have said it from the beginning. If we were able to do this thing like we did WWII, it'd be almost finished. We wouldn't have any Iraqi-based insurgency - only outside non-state actors. Unfortunately, you people can't stomach a real war - you all think it should be a police style operation. You can't have a sterile war. If you live on a battlefield, life is gonna suck. That's the nature of modern warfare. We don't fight out in fields anymore. You can't bring your lunch and the family to sit and watch the battle take place. If our troops were given the ROE that said do what ever you have to do to come home alive, I can guarantee you things would be much better. Well, maybe not for the Iraqis, but they would for us. It comes down to whose side are you on? You can't say that you are on the side of the US and Iraqi civilians. Most of the civilians are either apathetic or supporting the insurgency in some way. Time for a lesson. There are three components to an insurgency: the fighters, the auxillary, and the sympathizers. The fighters are the ones carrying out attacks. The auxillary helps them by either hiding them or transporting weapons, providing supplies, etc. The sympathizers are those that just turn a blind eye to it all. Of those three, the only ones we can currently attack are the fighters, which are hard to nail down as they don't wear a uniform. Unless we capture one and he gives us names and addresses, we can't get them. All three are guilty of carrying out the insurgency. We had an entire neighborhood of auxillary and sympathizers across the street from our compound in Mosul. The insurgency knew everytime a patrol left, who was on it, and where they were going. We didn't have many attacks, but then, it was a much quieter time back then.
As far as not finding WMD, it's not suprising. Iraq is a really big sandbox. We are still finding MiGs that were buried prior to the war. Do you really think Saddam sat around since '91 and didn't create some way of hiding those things? I doubt we will ever find them, but I don't doubt that they exist. The Sphinx was accidentally hidden in the desert for thousands of years. No one doubts that it exists. Think how easy it would be to hide a few bombs on purpose.
Inf -- Sorry, chief, but that's a weak, and absolutely unproveable connection. What if we didn't attack a country that had no Al-Qaeda ties? There could just as easily be "no car bombs in Metropolis, USA". A poor justifcation for a shitload of blood , a lot of money, and proof that the USA's current administration sees the sword as mightier than the pen. By the way it's OK to start to accept that WMD's don't exist, and haven't since 1995. It's been said by hundreds of CIA operatives, international inspectors...and even President Cheney, errr, Chimpy has said as much.

EDITED TO ADD: PS -- you are in the middle of a civil war. The US's actions actually unified Sunnis and Shiites for some time, however that has broken down. Hey, how about that -- Chimpy really is a unifier. "Insurgency" is a new buzz word for "Iraqi civil war".
Ain't it great to be in the middle of it for no fucking reason whatsoever?