I am sick of this demand from the right.
How much time does this moron need? How much money? How many troops need to die in a pointless war with no measurable means of determining "victory".
When you talk about letting them fight their own damn civil war the cons come back with a claim that terrorists will win if we leave-a completely bullshite claim-terrorists are not fighting the civil war-they are merely using the chaos as a cover to kill US troops-but the chaos is there with or without the terrorists.
World War II was fought and won in less time and it was GLOBAL. The definition of victory wasnt shrouded, it was clear. No one in the country was unsure of what we were fighting for because the enemy was clear and our mission was clear.
Iraq is more like Vietnam. We have picked one side of a civil war and there is little or no relevence to the safety of the United States involved at all. Bush had to lie to make the threat credible and now we see that Saddam had been beaten down to nothing in the first Gulf War. With Saddam dead, a civil war now exists with no clear front runner.
Like Iraq, Vietnam was NEVER a real threat the USA but there was a fear that if one side of the civil war got into power there might then be a threat, but it was all theory. Interestingly enough, the wrong side won and not only did they not represent a threat to the USA, but they are now doing a ton of business with the USA....so much for the Domino Theory.
The USA cannot be in the business of controlling who runs other countries-this is what EMPIRES do-and is that what we are or what we want to be? We can and should have a strong defense, but this should not be a strategy of controlling other nations and peoples by proxy
Bush declared that he wasnt going to nation build (a politically correct way of saying control who runs other nations). He lied-clearly.
More time? Time is his objective. The more time, the more money being made and the more control he gets of the Iraqi government.