Pick up a book on the gulf war politics (I'd recommend one, but my brain isn't really functioning at the moment due to extreme fatigue, so if I have a major screwup in this, let me know). So it starts out as a US diplomat in the Iraqi embassy giving our good buddies, the Iraqis (after all, they spend a decade in a war of attrition with the hated Iranians) giving the impression that we wouldn't care if they invade Kuwait since the Kuwaitis were being less than reasonable with the Iraqi war debt (considering that the Arab World was behind Iraq during the 8 year war since the kingdoms viewed the spread of Islamic fundamentalism ala Iran as a major threat). So, they invade and the world freaks out. UN is pushed to a unilateral invasion supported by member nations and NATO. Objectives are to push the Iraqis out of Kuwait. Not "regime change," not "Find the WMDs," not "Occupy Iraq," and not "full invasion of Iraq." It was to push them out of Kuwait and prevent them from retaking it. What follows is one of the first modern post-Cold War examples of air superiority over waves. Airpower combined with long range cruise missiles and surgical strikes routed the Iraqi military and destroyed much of their armor and air power. They left Kuwait and retreated, we ended hostilities after pilots reported that they werent even taking fire from the retreating army and it was like shooting fish in a barrel. UN objectives met, and Iraq faced actions because of it. Towards the end, we gave the Kurds the idea that we'd help them repell the Baathist rule and support their rebellion. Well, we didn't. They got the wrong end of the Iraqi air force and missile command.
If they did define objectives as regime change, do you think we'd have bases in any country in that region? No. If we kept going after the UN said stop, do you think that any other nation in that coalition would have followed us? Hell no. While the Cold War was technically still over, we really didn't know what to make of the former Soviet Union and really had no reason to give ANY country a reason to start a shooting war with us over something that detached and remote. Also consider that we didn't have about a decade of two presidents telling us that Iraq was making WMDs to gas our children when they're sleeping. If Bush Sr. would have kept going when everyone else would have stopped, his approval would have went from 90% to 30%. Think about it, make those hampster wheels in your head turn...if the American people don't have a reason that effects them directly, they do not give a damn. Why were we in the Cold War? Because the Russians had nukes aimed at us. Everything else was a lower form of that...Korea, Vietnam, Ghosts in Afghanastan (that sounds like a bad movie), Middle Eastern policy, NATO, Warsaw, etc. Anyone that says we shouldn't have stopped in 1991 doesn't know their ass from their elbow and should keep their mouth shut. That's similar to saying that someone should have sent a bullet between Hitler's eyes directly after WWI. Yeah, its a nice theory, but the question on everyone's mind in 1919 was "Who the hell is Adolf Hitler?" Or how about "OMG TEH UNITAD STAETS SUHOLD NEVAR HAEV LEFT VEITNAM!1" No popular support for a war tends to get congress away from it (as you're seeing now). Remember, most of congress voted on the Gulf of Tonkin to go to 'nam, and by the end most of congress was questioning or need to be there. Sure, we have crackpots that say "We should have used tactical nuclear weapons." Yeah, that's a good idea if we wanted an ICBM sandwhich from Russia with Love. There are many complexities about waging war with a democratic system, and people need to realize that some things are just not possible to do.
They released Turkish prisoners because they're turkish you tit. Notice they didn't release the American Marine, the South Koreans, or the other two Americans...maybe it has something to do with that they aren't from native muslim lands (yes, I know you're being sarcastic, I'm spelling it out).
Quote:
| Crush them all, says I. Don't laugh, don't enjoy it. But rub. Them. Out. |
I hate to ask this, but did you lift this straight from an al Qaeda video or something? Think about it man, they say the same thing about us.
The major problem lies when we don't distinguish the differance between the evil people and the people we're trying to help. Which leads me to ask you: if I lined up 10 Iraqis, could you tell me which ones were evil? Didn't think so.