Just stop it basso. Of course defeat is not acceptable. That's why so many Americans spoke out and marched and wrote against this thing before it started. That's why so many have been really ticked off at this administration throughout the course of this war... because if there had ever been any hope for anything other than defeat, it was sacrificed to ideology and mismanagement and fleeting domestic political concerns. Iraq is lost... any fool can see that... it doesn't matter how many more troops you put in or how extreme our actions are... the war is lost. And it doesn't have anything to do with public support or the persuasiveness (sp?) of the President... it has to do with the decision to go to war in the first place. After that horrible decision was made, it's evident that the little glimmer of possible success was snuffed quickly by the actions of the administration. If you're blaming someone because they behave as if defeat doesn't matter, then aim your anger with the rest of us at this administration.
basso, this has to rank as one of the more bizarre posts I've read from you, with all due respect. Today, with half a million boots on the ground, I don't think we could pacify Iraq. And we haven't got a half a million boots to put on the ground there, have we. You find no fault in anything Bush has done regarding this whole affair, reality be damned. You find no fault in his failure to call for sacrifice from Americans, to raise the funds needed to pay for this conflict he decided upon, to get rid of incompetent leadership when it became obvious to anyone paying the least attention that those pushed aside before and immediately after this thing was launched, because they argued for actions that might have, just might have enabled us to pull this thing off, were right. And no consequences for those who led us into disaster. Until this election. One could go on at great length about what Bush and his closest advisors have done wrong. Your reaction? Blame it on the "Left." Pathetic. I'm sure those frantically trying to get the Iraqi Army in their barracks, with their weapons, and on a payroll right after the invasion were leftists. I'm sure those generals who advised a far larger force to occupy the country, and were forced into early retirement, were leftists. Sure. basso, sometimes I'm embarrassed for you. Clearly, you need someone else to feel that way, not having the grace to admit how wrong you've been. D&D. Duck and Cover.
