Political parties aside...what is the biggest factor keeping us from winning the war in Iraq?
826141
The real problem with winning the war in Iraq is the media and the American people... The United States government has to be so politically correct in everything they do, that you can't fight a real war... In WWII we bombed the living s**t out of every country we invaded or liberated... We blew up Church's, houses, orphanages, hospitals you name it was destroyed... the objective of war is to destroy the enemy so bad that he gives up... Why do you think Japan surrendered after we dropped the 2 a-bombs...because we destroyed 2 whole cities and were willing to destroy more... Japan knew they couldn't afford anymore battles like that so they quit... But now adays if you accidentally blow up a school, the media is all over it and the American public goes in an outrage...That's the main reason we have smart bombs today, to try and reduce the civilian casualties... But it's hard to fight an enemy that places his armor next to or on top of a school building... The politics of this war are no different than what was in Vietnam... During Vietnam the American public learned how brutal war was by watching it first hand on TV... That's when they couldn't handle the fact that women and children die in war... So they all sat around protesting and calling the soldiers baby killers... The hard truth is that America will never win another war in any country, because the American people can't handle the fact of what war is really about...
677195
Nothing, the Republicans can't get together on this issue. They are the majority in both sides of Congress, and I say they are stalling because of the election in November.
263962
NONE, THERE IS NOT WINNER IN ANY WAR JUST LOSERS!!!!
328970
It all comes down to oil,if you want a bottom line.\nMost of the world's oil comes from the Middle East,which\nhas placed the West at a disadvantage for decades.\nAn American-supported Iraqi government would do much to shift the balance of power in the region in theory.\nIn practice maybe it'll turn out the U.S. should just have kept it's soldiers out of that part of the world,if this whole thing backfires.
834515
Bad news for the troops.\n\nThe Democrats feel that defeat will serve them politically.  So they will work to ensure that defeat.\n\nThe real losers in this election will be the Iraqi people.
728059
it is war we cannot win
471846
There are three reasons for being in Iraq:\n\n1. Oil\n2. Oil\n3. OIL!\n\nOther than that, there is oil.\n\nIn a speech on campus last night Dinesh D'sousa, a prior advisor to the Regan administration explained the distance between political rhetoric of the Republican party and action.  The REAL reasons for war in Iraq, according to D'sousa is\n\n1. Oil.  Oil prices are low because we have bullied them low through military action.\n\n2. End the sanctions against Iraq which had killed hundreds of thousands of children, yet not budged SH.\n\n3. Send a message to terrorists and their sponsors that the US will respond with force and has the will to fight (we can safely assume that anyone promoting people flying aircraft to kill innocent people in the name of war are psychopaths, no matter what the human tools were programmed to believe)\n\n4. Containment of the anti-US Iran, which is viewed as the real top terrorist investor, but usually manages to avoid creating the public situation in which there is a political premise for war.  Basically, while we are engaged in hot conflicts in neighboring states, we have technically been in a state of cold war with Iran for over a decade...  (consider long-term trends with other countries the US refused to recognize).\n\n5. We are likewise in an undeclared cultural war with a significant segment of the Islamic world that does not appreciate religious diversity or liberalism and would happily have your head chopped off if you suggested gay marriage be ok, or that all groups be treated fairly, or that women be treated with respect and "equality."  It is, as with the Cold War, the result of two incompatible worldviews struggling on this level for world domination.\n\nA MAJOR weakness of his arguements was this:\n\nA problem of promoting real democracy in the middle east is that middle east democracies have tended to support the kind of regimes that are hostile to the US!  As a result, the US has often supported liberal dictators over Islamic fundamentalist elected officials.  In a way, this is not so different of an attitude within the US of Democratic party supporters being angry at the "bad decision" of many other US citizens.  Democracy isn't necessarily what we hope it would be over there either.  So - here is the part he did not state - how does it make sense to try to build democracy in Iraq if the majority of Iraq is muslim and muslims have been hostile to the US?\n\nAs I had argued LONG before troops were deployed, there were better, or at least more plausable, reasons to attack Iraq and occupy it for the time.  These reasons also indicate that we can expect to have a base in Iraq for a long time.\n\nAnother reason why the US are over there:\n\nCurrently 80% of the country is allied to the US.  The remaining 20% (Bathists) are bitter about being removed from power and is the remaining opposition force, with far smaller numbers actually fighting.  So if we leave, we let down 80% of Iraq to accomodate an abusive minority group (how else did SH maintain power?).\n\nNow do I LIKE it?  No.  Is it practical?  Maybe not, but those are the reasons why the US is in Iraq today.  I certainly hate the idea of vulturous investors getting rich on weapons and oil stocks.  Then there are people like Michael Moore joining in on the investing... Well, can I blame them if nobody is going to stop it?  I don't know how to stop them myself, so I just tell them they are wrong to profit from someone else's misery...\n\nLike the detractors to the idea of there being WMDs in Iraq, D'sousa had the advantage of speaking from hindsight.  My own opinions that reflected *some* of these arguments - that the UN sanctions were unethical and untenable in particular - were presented in a public forum even on the very day that Bush publicly announced the invasion.  I guess that's what I get for not copywriting and demanding I am properly cited.  (shrugs)\n\nPS.  It is because o
918289
I think that the war in Iraq is a war that cannot be won just like the war on terror, sure we can do things to help the cause but the actual war/wars are not going to be won. I just cant believe how many people still think that we can win this war. I don't know if it is worse than Vietnam, we lost over 50,000 people there but the long term ramifications of this war cannot be measured.
933520
The insertion of troops was a major mistake. The entire region under Islamic influence from Morocco to Indonesia is far less stable as a result. The U.S. is increasingly seen as dictatorial by increasing numbers of people around the world. Our economy has been vastly weakened. We do not have enough troops available should other emergencies develop. The Civil War, denied by the Bush administration but acknowledged as being fully underway by the rest of the world, deepens daily and leaves American troops there as sitting ducks. There can be no victory in Iraq. Just as the British learned after World War I, the Iraqis will not be conquered. There is too much value underground (oil) and too much division above-ground. The only result of continued occupation will be increasing governmental debt for the U.S. and more dead and injured American soldiers. Military contractors such as Halliburton are being enriched. The Bush administration has no idea of what they mean by "victory", nor does Tony Blair in England.
763797
Republicans have a real problem here - they can't afford to let Kerry run his mouth uncontested, but they are skating on thin ice concerning Iraq with the nearing election. I would not want to be in a position trying to justify our being there (even though I feel that we need to stay at this point). Politicians are just slinging mud - when the overspray of mud hit the voters in the eye, the election can be affected drastically. Republicans need to be mindful of the shaky ground that they are on and proceed cautiously.
818731
Its what needs to be down to secure Iraq, but it wont happen because the American people as a whole don't want to be in Iraq.  Americans see Iraq as another Vietnam, but Iraq can't be won unless we see the middle east as we once saw the wild west.
878661
News flash. Bush is still in control of what happens in Iraq. He is going to fight kicking and screaming against a withdrawal. He will lose, but he will fight it. There is no face to save at this point. Bush and his ardent supporters are the only people who still think the whole Iraq thing was a good idea, and we can "win", whatever that means. The republicans need to realize if they keep letting this president get his way with Iraq, they don't stand a chance in the next presidential election. He is in the process of sinking their ship in the desert.
857440
I agree - we can't win in Iraq without addressing Iran and Syria, who are supplying the terrorists.\n\nSadly, I doubt America's politicians or public have the will to do it.
1038890
President Bush is unlikely to declare victory outright: it would be an open invitation for extremists to perpetrate some outrage to prove him wrong. What he may well do is make a Treaty with the government he has set up in Iraq so that the United States and allied troops become "advisors" (or some such status), and he is also likely to make a show of reducing troop numbers. Rather than saying he has won Bush will then point to his successes, as he will claim them, in Iraq.
1025953
The problem with your suggestion is that democrats can't win elections with it; and they are solely focused on the negative simply to win their November elections.  Positive thinking would only hurt their cause and morale of Iraqis and even our troops is not of their interest - winning is....pretty sad isn't it.
824503
Listen up. There "is" no losing or winning. It's impossible to win a war against terrorism. It "is" possible to prevent people from doing terrorist acts, but it's impossible to stop them trying.\n\nSo i would have to say we'll never win, nor lose.\n\n(For everyone who jumps on me because i said it was a war on terrorism and not oil, you need to get your facts straight. The war began in afganistan. We drove Osama out, making him hide in a dark hole in Pakistan. They attacked Saddam to make sure he didn't have anymore weapons of mass destruction left over from the times of the Kurds that he could sell to Osama.)
764812
Iraq is currently the single most important issue to me. Our strategy needs to change quickly and in a way that will help the Iraqis take over security of their own nation and thus allow our troops to concentrate on helping NATO in Afghanistan. This strategy change should include anything and everything up to, but not including, leaving before Iraq is able to maintain its own security.