[url=http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2006/020206goadsaddam.htm]
Bush/Blair Memo Discussed Painting Spy Plane In UN Colors To Goad Saddam
President Bush said: “The US was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours. If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach.”
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I’m surprised they never tried this, they’ve done this kind of thing before.
"The most startling moment in “My Year in Iraq,” L. Paul Bremer III’s memoir from his days as the head of the American occupation, comes near the end, when violent uprisings were sweeping most of the central and southern parts of the country in May 2004. With the whole American enterprise verging on collapse, Bremer decided to secretly ask the Pentagon for tens of thousands of additional American troops
The problem is, at least according to General Casey, the presence of too many troops increases the Iraqi people’s general sense of occupation. That can lead to popular discontent and more young men becoming insurgents. Of course too few troops also creates obvious problems, but it’s a delicate balance.
Spook, how would you characterize the situation in Iraq? Do you think progress has been made?
It’s stuff like that that makes me think the only reason there hasn’t been another terrorist attack on America is because it would give to gov’t the popular support they need to start a draft.
WOO HOO DRAFT TIME!
One can’t doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed.
Well, according to William F. Buckley and Bill O’Reilly it has- though when Howard Dean and Jake Murtha said the same thing a few months ago they were reviled as traitors and cowards , with some wingnuts calling for Dean to be hanged for treason.
I think this story from William Kristol is the new talking point :
[quote]BILL KRISTOL: There would not be civil war if Zarqawi had not spent the last 2 1/2 years
I can. But I have a different idea of the American objective in Iraq than you do. Wait and see.
In the coming year terrorists are going to concentrate their attacks on the two vital targets in the Middle East – oil supplies and important religious symbols – accelerating the descent into chaos in the Middle East and economic dislocation in the West.
Consequently, the situation a year from now will be worse than it is currently, just as has happened every year since 2003. The sectarian extremists in both East and West will be happy because their goal from the beginning, open religious warfare between the Judeo-Christian West and Islamic East, will be even closer, if not in full swing. The moderate majorities in both East and West will – rather than see through the deceptions of the extremists in their midst which are the cause of all this pointless conflict – fall more and more under the spell of their sectarian violence and hatred.
There’s just enough religion to keep the world together.
There’s just enough KINDS OF religion to keep the world apart.
Since I am harassing another poster in another thread, why not here. We have already won in Iraq. Nothing will change that. Disruption is not the same as overturning the status quo. We will remain for decades. We will keep 35k to 50k troops in the country. It will be good for Iraq. It will be good for the region. When the Iraqis decide that it is not, they will ask us to leave like the Philippines and when we do, will it be good for the country? perhaps not but does anyone doubt that they will have the right to do so?
No one does boilerplate like Fred. 
:roflmao:
Heh. I don’t think the U.S. will ever leave Iraq. There will be U.S. bases there 20 years from now, just like in Japan or Korea. And I dare say the rest of the Western world will be damn thankful. Wait and see.
The only winners in Iraq are the extremists who’ve craved the orgy of sectarian violence and hatred there that the rest of us see as failure or verging on failure.
Al Qaeda is just as convinced as Fred that it’s winning in Iraq and both are right.
Believe them, follow them at your peril.
[quote=“trebuchet”]It’s stuff like that that makes me think the only reason there hasn’t been another terrorist attack on America is because it would give to gov’t the popular support they need to start a draft.
WOO HOO DRAFT TIME![/quote]
And if they start a draft - fat chance - WOMEN should be included.
Bodo
Surely the primary objective was to topple the Hussein regime, which was accomplished early on. Since then, we’ve spent billions of dollars repairing their infrastructure, including repairing or building new roads, hospitals, and schools. We’re training the new Iraqi security forces, the overwhelming majority of whom have not deserted and remain committed to the securing their country. The Iraqi forces are now running their own missions in several parts of Iraq, and President Bush has already announced he will reduce US troop presence by six or seven thousand. Despite the recent outbreaks of sectarian violence, the overall amount of violence has decreased in the past six months. It seems like progress is being made, slowly but steadily.
I doubt it.
How can one even assert that the objective has failed when the objective will undoubtedly take years to achieve?
American objective in Iraq? Troops unsure:
U.S. Troops in Iraq: 72% Say End War in 2006
An overwhelming majority of 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and nearly one in four say the troops should leave immediately, a new Le Moyne College/Zogby International survey shows. . . .
The wide-ranging poll also shows that 58% of those serving in country say the U.S. mission in Iraq is clear in their minds, while 42% said it is either somewhat or very unclear to them, that they have no understanding of it at all, or are unsure. While [b]85% said the U.S. mission is mainly
[quote=“spook”]American objective in Iraq? Troops unsure:
U.S. Troops in Iraq: 72% Say End War in 2006
An overwhelming majority of 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and nearly one in four say the troops should leave immediately, a new Le Moyne College/Zogby International survey shows. . . .
The wide-ranging poll also shows that 58% of those serving in country say the U.S. mission in Iraq is clear in their minds, while 42% said it is either somewhat or very unclear to them, that they have no understanding of it at all, or are unsure. While [b]85% said the U.S. mission is mainly
That would become a real problem, wouldn’t it? 