(10-18-2019 10:42 AM)fsquid Wrote:  

(10-18-2019 10:39 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-18-2019 10:38 AM)fsquid Wrote:  Maybe the next time we decide to do this with an actual plan.

I have a plan. Never fight a war that you don't intend to win. Never, never, never, never fight a war that you don't want anybody to win. Syria fits both of those, so I guess it's good for 5 nevers.

I agree but when you've already gone in, at least have a decent exit plan when you want to get out. IT seems we didn't quite have one on this.

I don't know that there is one. Once you get into a war that you don't intend to win and don't really want anybody to win, there is no viable way to get out. That's a major problem.

I suppose we could say that we wanted the Kurds to win. But if that's the case, 50 or 100 or 1000, or whatever the number is, troops is not enough to accomplish that.

(10-18-2019 10:39 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-18-2019 10:38 AM)fsquid Wrote:  Maybe the next time we decide to do this with an actual plan.

I have a plan. Never fight a war that you don't intend to win. Never, never, never, never fight a war that you don't want anybody to win. Syria fits both of those, so I guess it's good for 5 never.

Exactly. The last time we fought a war we very well intended to win was in the 1940s. Since then it's just been a series of bad intentions and a Congress that doesn't have the sack to actually declare a war. They expend lives to line their pockets. Both sides of the aisle.

Stop fighting wars and sending our soldiers and sailors into harms way to win "hearts and minds". Stop fighting wars while simultaneously spending billions to rebuild infrastructure then have to destroy it during battle and repeat, repeat, repeat.

Stop fighting wars that bend to the public's interpretation of what they can "stomach" on the nightly news. If we're serious enough that an issue requires boots on the ground, then send them in to annihilate the enemy and leave when done. Enough of the Woodrow Wilson style policies of fighting wars and then paying to improve the lands and quality of life of our enemies.

It's a failed ideology that our country has spent trillions of dollars on attempting to be successful.

The reason we don't have viable "exit plans" is because we try to fight and heal them at the same time. Enough of that.

Fight. Destroy. Leave.

Teach them that if they eff with us or something that is especially important to our survival as a nation... we will beat them, and they won't recover well. That outlook will prevent a lot of BS.

Constant little wrist slaps and then pandering to them has accomplished nothing. That's the kind of "exit strategies" we've had since Korea.

(10-18-2019 10:29 AM)tennis2k4 Wrote:  How's that cease fire coming along?

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/18/middleeas...index.html

(10-18-2019 11:21 AM)JDTulane Wrote:  

(10-18-2019 10:29 AM)tennis2k4 Wrote:  How's that cease fire coming along?

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/18/middleeas...index.html

Didn't figure you'd have any problem with not honoring commitments.

(10-18-2019 10:49 AM)CG_Hawk06 Wrote:  The reason we don't have viable "exit plans" is because we try to fight and heal them at the same time. Enough of that.

Fight. Destroy. Leave.

Teach them that if they eff with us or something that is especially important to our survival as a nation... we will beat them, and they won't recover well. That outlook will prevent a lot of BS.

Constant little wrist slaps and then pandering to them has accomplished nothing. That's the kind of "exit strategies" we've had since Korea.

This is true. War really is (and should be) hell.

Trying to sanitize it and reduce casualty rates defeats the purpose of war.

What is the purpose of war? To stop somebody from doing something.

Hitler exerting German military might was not war. It was unchecked aggression.

Once somebody stood up and told Germany, "No more!" then it changed from unchecked aggression to war.

War is when a second party steps in.

And war is serious business.


So, back to Turkey and the Kurds. If congress really is upset about what's happening they can personally address it by declaring war.

If they really have serious convictions about the issue, then declare war and make it stop. Otherwise, sit down and shut up.

(10-17-2019 03:48 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  

(10-18-2019 11:54 AM)umbluegray Wrote:  So, back to Turkey and the Kurds. If congress really is upset about what's happening they can personally address it by declaring war.

If they really have serious convictions about the issue, then declare war and make it stop. Otherwise, sit down and shut up.

This is what the media should be telling people

There are always checks and balances. Congress has a nasty habit of giving thier rights up but complaining.

If this is such a big deal than pass a war declaration on Turkey

Funny how they have shut up now that President Trump has an agreement between the Turks and Kurds that noone else could get.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/t...-decision/
A rational discussion of the situation, asking the simple question-What is our goal?

"...Establishing sustainable local balances of power with comparatively modest contributions to maintain them has been the U.S. foreign-policy goal since shortly after World War II. It has been achieved in Western and Central Europe and is close at hand in the Far East and now, perhaps, in the Middle East as well. It is from this perspective that the president’s actions with the Kurds should be seen, not with shamed and breathless hand-wringing every time there is a casualty on the Syrian–Turkish border."

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/...sis-229858

These leftist articles are so hilarious! They have to spend several paragraphs bashing President Trump before explaining why he is right.

At least they did acknowledge that rather than the rank hypocrisy of the Democratic presidential candidates.

Its a testament to the mass insanity that has infected the American left. Makes you almost wonder if it really is a virus of some sort. Virtue signaling certainly is a pernicious evil.