Skip to main content

5 Year Anniversary: What does it mean to "win the war in Iraq"?

People talking about winning the Iraq war, but I'm not sure what they mean.

One of the most infamous events of the Bush presidency happened a few years ago when he flew onto a Navy battleship and declared victory in Iraq. Gee, if that's your idea of victory...

Anyway, 4000 Americans have now died, and nobody seems to care. A recent poll indicated that only 30% of Americans even know what the body count is. And I'd bet even fewer know that we've spent 500 billion dollars to "win" this war.

So what does winning mean?

1. Getting rid of weapons of mass destruction? (none there)
2. Getting rid of Sadam? (he's dead)
3. Installing an American-style democracy? (never gonna happen)
4. Forcing everyone in Iraq to get along? (we will be there 100 years or longer if that's the goal)
5. Make American companies a lot of money? (perhaps this is happening, and will continue to happen for as long as we're there -- is that the real meaning of "winning," making money?)
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 27, 2008 at 7:52 PM

    What does winning mean? Well, Saddam had used WMD on people in Iraq. Noonereally knows what he may have had during the time the UN inspectors were not really allowed in. Could they have had something and move it to Syria or somehwere? I do not have that sort of information. Does anyone here? Is it remotely possible that our Intelligence angencies possess any intelligence and any information such as we do not have?

    So if "winning" meant getting rid of Saddam, and that only, then we certainly wond. A bonus is that we got rid of his sons.

    I would certainly hope that we would not be wanting to intall a US style democracy. One reason? The US is not supposed to have a democracy, but to be instead a Republic. As one who wants words to have meaning, "America" is a continent, not a type of government.

    Forcing everyone in Iraq to get along? We can't evendo that with the United States. SWe canno evenget everhone in the US to "assimilate". Would we really want to?

    Ah yes! Make some American companies a lot of money. Not to be personal, but how hight in the hierarchey of your desires, wants etc is the making of a lot of money and the spending of it on your own comforts and conveniences?

    Do you think you are a success (that you are winning in life) if you make a lot of money?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Digging for the Truth" Experiment #1 - Real Coffee with Scott Adams

I've been curious about how others perceive reality. What is "true" and "real" to me is not necessarily "true" and "real" to others.  First stop: Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert.  He's currently 67, does a daily podcast called "Real Coffee with Scott Adams" which draws about 30,000 listeners on YouTube, with 172,000 total subscribers to the channel. Podcast is also available on all the usual places, with a 4.4 rating on Apple Podcasts. Each episode is about an hour long, or a little less.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15SFbr2vj8c 1. Basic format: Just runs through news articles that drew his interest. On the April 15 episode (link above), he ran through 28 articles. Often he'd laugh at something, sometimes to show his disbelief.  2. Adams is not a big fan of science. He's open to conspiracy theories. Believes that the government doesn't tell us the truth (although he seems to think the Trump administration is an e...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Unconventional Life

How conventional is your life? If you're in your 30s as I am, think about how much you and I have in common: Spouce? check Kid(s)? check Job? check House? check Debt? check Obviously there's nothing wrong with conventional living, but if that's all there is, it seems kind of robotic to me. We have our freewill, and yet we all go through similar life stages, and we all share basic common experiences. What makes my life any different, then, from a million other lives in the Western world? This bothers me, and I yearn to make my life more unconventional. Of course people that are "unconventional" often find themselves being unconventional in uniform ways. So, perhaps there's no way out of the box. There's no way to live a life that someone else hasn't already lived. And maybe that's okay. I would just like to be able to add some unconventional elements to the satisfactory conventional elements of my life. The question is: How can I do that w...
4 comments
Read more

"Digging for the Truth" Experiment #2 -- Bald and Bankrupt

His first name is Benjamin, but he usually goes by "Bald." Bald has been posting travel videos since 2018. His passion is anything Soviet Union, but he will take the time to learn a language before he visits a place -- not only Russian, but Spanish, say. It's important for him to have the ability to speak to people in their native tongue.  On Friday, April 18, Bald posted a video called "Solo on Ukraine's Eastern Front." So far it's generated 2.7 million views, and based on viewer average, it will likely go over 5 million views. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3HRnwC6pso Most of his videos are in the neighborhood of an hour in length. In them, he usually establishes where he is and what his goal for being there is. He will start somewhere and then go seek out a place, without knowing exactly what he will find there.  For the latest Ukraine video, he starts at the Kiev train station. It's been 3 years, he says, since he last visited Ukraine, and he h...
Post a Comment
Read more