"All Wars Are the Same"

The Blond Ghoul with whom media "news" shows seem to enjoy conversing suggests that there is no difference between the Iraq War and World War II. They're both wars, you see.

"Yeah, I think Iraq was an important war to fight, and like I say, I think we're enjoying the benefits of it now, thank you, George Bush!"

Besides the ridiculous simplification that Coulter makes here, the CRS projects the Iraq and Afghanstan War to top one trillion dollars by the end of this year. Added to the Bush tax cuts and recent economic downturn, President Obama got to inherit a staggering deficit that will take decades from which to recover. Then there's the 6300 dead coalition troops and 41,100 additional coalition casualties who have paid the price of fighting in the Middle East since 2001. As we watch Iraq turn into a Shia-dominated government that backs Iran's power plays in the region, condones continued sectarian violence, and (my favorite part) uses US foreign military sales to obtain M1 tanks and F16 planes (in addition to other "leave-behind" defense systems), we all get to say, "thank you, George Bush. May we have another?"

Comments

[para]

"As we watch Iraq turn into a Shia-dominated government that backs Iran's power plays in the region, condones continued sectarian violence, and (my favorite part) uses US foreign military sales to obtain M1 tanks and F16 planes (in addition to other "leave-behind" defense systems),"

Its marvellous, isnt it? I really cant wrap my mind around this. I mean, here we are, pondering the significance of weapons and technology proliferation and their influence on shaping present and future conflicts (apparently somewhat relevant for instance to Iran and NK) and yet for the US the ink on materiel contracts such as the ones with Iraq cannot dry fast enough. Just a couple of days ago Iraq and Iran met to discuss border security (and other matters?)...somehow I feel they do not intend to deter Teheran with shiny new M1s and Falcons anytime soon. Heck, they might just as well give the Iranians a really got look at them, being good neighbours and all that...

[J.]

"Heck, they might just as well give the Iranians a really got look at them, being good neighbours and all that..."

My thoughts exactly. Maybe the Iranians can improve their explosively formed projectiles if Iraq lends them an M1 tank and an MRAP to play with. So damned stupid, this idea that the Iraqi army should be a mirror of US forces.

[Ben Dejo]

Unless like NASA, you want to make sure you get the "New" program up and running, you wind up making your current inventory obsolete "overnight", then we must have a new vehicle.

[AndroidBoy]

If Op:Iraqi Freedom was more like WWII we wouldn't have had so many problems. Imagine Baghdad as Dresden, Tikrit as Berlin. It's hard to be an insurgent when everything is gone.