On the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, with nearly 4,000* American lives lost, is Iraq really on a path to peace?Are you sure you want to continue refereeing this bullshit for another 100 years? At $466 million a day?
Three factors are often cited in explaining the improvement in security: the U.S. troop surge, the political "awakening" of the Iraqi people, and the cease fire ordered by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
But some say a controversial fourth dynamic is at play as well -- cash, being doled out by the barrelful.
It's a truth many hold to be self-evident that more American troops translate into less Iraqi violence. As Bush said in January's State of the Union speech, "Some may deny the surge is working, but among the terrorists there is no doubt."
But some military experts do have doubts, arguing there's actually a mightier force at work -- hundreds of millions in cash given to Iraqis, ...Continued
We have denigrated our military to being street cops who hand out bribes on street corners to neighborhood thugs so they won't kill each other. Is that what we trained them to do?
Our military 'won' this war five weeks into it. We should not have gone there in the first place, but we did.
After our initial blunder, we should have left the day we captured Saddam Hussein. That was 52 months, and 3,534 killed in action, ago.
We could use the $14 billion a month as a $168 billion 'stimulus package' - for Americans - every single year.
We should get the hell out of Iraq now!
