The War In Iraq: Our Options

[minionofmidas]

The purpose of this thread is to attempt to have a no BS discussion about the options available to the US government in dealing with the situation in Iraq.

As I see it there are really only 4 options open to us in facing the situation in Iraq (if anyone has any other ideas please share them).

1. Withdraw
Pros -- Gets our troops out of harms way and ends spending on it.
Cons -- The situation in Iraq could deteriorate to an even worse situation w/ the Iraqi government unable to support itself.

2. Maintain the Status Quo
Pros -- No one sticks their political neck out and we definitely know what the current situation is.
Cons -- The current situation is far from desirable and there is no reason to believe that by doing the same thing we will see different results.

3. Escalate within Iraq
Pros -- Tighter security in the short term
Cons -- Great resentment of US forces in the long term

4. Escalate beyond Iraq (possible Iranian invasion)
Pros -- Potentially eliminate the threat of Iran getting nukes
Cons -- Incite the entire Muslim/Arab world into believing we are just going from Islamic country to Islamic country.


Frankly I for one am in favor of massive escalation beyond Iraq or total withdrawal.  I think the other two options are just putting a band-aid on a festering wound of someone who is allergic to adhesive.

All of them are almost guaranteed to end in eventual humiliating defeat by this point, so it hardly matters.

[minionofmidas]

No win situation no matter what happens and has been since the second Bush decided to invade.

No, there's been no hope of anything other than a no-win situation for much longer than that.

Eh... we're all mortal, so there's no hope of anything but a no-win situation on earth anyways...

[minionofmidas]

in a peaceful manner

Is there an example of ethnic cleansing being done in a peaceful manner?

Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria post-1923?

Notice that a) that doesn't change the fact that people are still bitter about it 80 years on b) this was agreed on between and carried through by settled previously existing governments.