Will the US lose the war in Iraq by running out of soldiers?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Spiffor
I'm fairly surprised at France's niceness toward the US (we aren't caricatural compared to the rest of Europe), and I'm completely baffled by Pakistan's very positive stance toward China.

You forgot that the PRC has always positioned itself as a champion of the Third World.

You are talking about a country that built Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TANZARA) for the most part, with a nice sum of money and a good number of dead engineers, with no benefit to itself whatsoever except perhaps political goodwill.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Yes, great progress

Sinophobia

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
And China's political freedoms have grown so much since this

Wake me up when an atheist becomes the president of the US.

[Ted Striker]

Maybe Pakis like China because they keep their business to themselves, at least in regards to the whole India Pakistan thing.

Not saying crap like, "Pakistan doesn't respect FREEDOM, and LIBERTY!!!"

[Ted Striker]

Even CNN seems to be fed up. Saying how Rumsfeld is "dancing" around questions.

Talks with Sunni Arabs

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the commander of U.S. forces in the region danced around questions about a report in the Sunday Times of London that U.S. officials were negotiating with insurgent leaders for an end to violence and a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal.

"I'm not sure that I would characterize it as a dialogue between U.S. officials and insurgents," Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, said on CNN's "Late Edition."

"I would say that U.S. officials and Iraqi officials are looking for the right people in the Sunni community to talk to in order to ensure that the Sunni Arab community ... becomes part of the political process," Abizaid said.

"And clearly we know that the vast majority of the insurgents are from the Sunni Arab community."

Rumsfeld said U.S. officials are talking to "people all across the spectrum, insurgents and opponents, people kind of leaning that way, people in the middle, people leaning toward the government and then the government."

"The goal is to get everyone moving in the right direction towards the government," he told ABC News. "There's all kinds of talks going on, and that's a good thing."

The two men carried similar messages on Sunday talk shows -- that the United States would beat the insurgency, that the press is reporting only negative things about the war and that a timetable for withdrawal would be a mistake.

Abizaid said the insurgency would fail, twice calling U.S. forces "the shield behind which politics take place."

"This is not a quagmire," he said. "It is a marathon, and we're at about the 21st mile."

But Rumsfeld said the "insurgency could go on for any number of years. Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years."

"Coalition forces, foreign forces are not going to repress that insurgency," he told Fox News. "We're going to create an environment that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi security forces can win."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/06/26/iraq.main/index.html

[Kropotkin]

On the issue of losses:

The other day or so, a student made a flash presentation based lunaville's Coalition Casualty Count. Might be worth a look; http://www.obleek.com/iraq/index.html .

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
You forgot that the PRC has always positioned itself as a champion of the Third World.

Bringing [censored] and [censored] to the third world

You are talking about a country that built Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TANZARA) for the most part, with a nice sum of money and a good number of dead engineers, with no benefit to itself whatsoever except perhaps political goodwill.

perhaps?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Sinophobia

AIDS

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Wake me up when an atheist becomes the president of the US.

Wake me up when anyone is elected Chairman in the PRC.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Kropotkin
On the issue of losses:

The other day or so, a student made a flash presentation based lunaville's Coalition Casualty Count. Might be worth a look; http://www.obleek.com/iraq/index.html .

Very well done presentation.


Seems (realtivley) quiet in the South.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Spiffor
I'm completely baffled by Pakistan's very positive stance toward China.

You shouldn't be. If you look at a map, you'll notice where China is in relation to India . Neither China nor Pakistan like India much and basically have found a marriage of convenience based on that particular issue.

[MOBIUS]

But Rumsfeld said the "insurgency could go on for any number of years. Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years."

"Coalition forces, foreign forces are not going to repress that insurgency," he told Fox News. "We're going to create an environment that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi security forces can win."

So basically 100,000+ US soldiers will be garrisoned in Iraq for the next say 5 years or so (which at current rates would be about another 3,500 dead and 25,000 wounded US soldiers and untold billions of dollars in cost) - I wouldn't be signing up for that if I were a potential recruit...

Are you sure the US won't be running out of soldiers in the next few years...?

[Commy]

Well, if the average pay for an enlisted man goes way above that of a lawn mower, the Mexicans might decide to help us...

[MichaeltheGreat]

Not likely. Why would they?

[Alexander's Horse]

the zimmerman telegram