I was always against going to war.

Having 1/2 a brain you could tell right from before day 1 it would turn into a vietnam. The simple fact any country that tries to fight america with a 'tank on tank' war is just stupid. It makes perfect sense for you to gorilla fight. Hell america INVENTED gorilla warfare why not use it against them. That said now that the war is in full swing you simply can't end it in a conventional means. Your not fighting a goverment anymore your fighting people. No single person is in charge. You have alot of different people who are fighting for their own reasons. The longer the war goes on the more people will be pulled into it (what would you do if your entire family was killed by a foreign goverment? go on about your life and thank that goverment for improving your life? or would you bury a bomb on a road used regulary by said goverment?)

The only way to end a war like this is over a VERY long time (15-25 years or longer) and only by small steps. You have to enable the people to protect themselves and you need to help them goven themselves (this doesn't mean putting in a puppet goverment of your choosing, even if you disagree with the choice of the people it is their RIGHT to choose wrong). You have to show that by blowing things up they are only hurting themselves and that it has no real impact on yourself. This includes using the people to rebuild their own country. Shipping in companies under your goverement for them to do the work/get rich doesn't help.

Britian vs Ireland is a really good example. Here you had a country that was invaded by another and occupied. By the 1960's the british goverment had enough (maybe even before then) and wanted to give independance to ireland but simply couldn't because of the continueing bombings by the IRA. If Britian gave up occupancy of Ireland at the time it would of been seen as a sign of weakness so it took 30 years for britian to be able to allow Ireland to form their own independant goverment and be able to pass power to it.

With Britian vs Ireland at least you had alot of similaries in culture and even distance. With Iraq what is the same? 'You like to sell oil and make yourself rich and we like to use oil?'

How on earth anyone thought it would be a 1-2 year fight to get saddam out and to form a new goverment i'll never know. I'm sick of seeing in the media 'ohh!! you never said it would take 10 years for us to topple a goverment and put our own in!'.. What the hell.. I don't consider myself to be the smartest man alive but I'd think you would have to be a total retard to think that.

My point i'm trying to make is if america pulls out of this war now (like they have sooo many times in the past.. re 1979-1989 Soviet/Afghanistan war) you WILL have people bringing the war to you. Just because you decide a war is over doesn't make it so. And if america pulls out of Iraq the Iraqis who believe they have been wronged will just follow the battle field back to american soil. My only real hope out of this is for america to be brought to the brink of bankrupcy (president bush has spent more money than EVERY other president of america combined!!) the entire population pass thru a resession and remember just what going to war and killing thousands of people really costs. It cost them their lives at least it should cost americans their wallets.


/rant