The Third Hundred Years War Has 86 To Go

[The Grand Nudger]

At the lowest cost in blood and treasure we can achieve.  We need to improve our method, in these regions...obviously.  Pulling out before the job is done doesn't save a dime or a pint of blood, it just floats the bill a few years down the road.  It's not a coincidence that we're back in Iraq.

Well, that presumes that we will go back in. We aren't, however, "back in Iraq". We never left the place. Yes, we've seen casualties go down very much.

I was referring to Iraq 1 and 2.  That we would end up going back in, if we left now, seems likely in light of the fact that we're already -on- that merry go round. If we cut and never came back, and we could do that - then we'd simply be failing those people and shirking whatever responsibility we have for their situation anyway.

I suspect that whenever we actually leave, it's going to go right to shit again, given the synthetic nature of its founding. We're even seeing that right now with the Kurds moving forward on their referendum even as Baghdad threatens action in the event it passes -- and that's with us there. We're about to be in a position where we will either abandon the government so many GIs died in the process of creating, or playing support in a shooting war with the only ethnic group that has co-operated with us.

We have to help both parties reach a different solution.  

How to Win Friends and Influence People©, am I right?

LOL, pretty much...but with bullets and dead people all over the floor.