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

[KrazyHorse]

The "city" you burned was York (now Toronto; then it was barely a frontier outpost, and in burning it down the American forces managed to kill dozens of their own troops when the powder magazine exploded).

You never reached Montreal in that war. A force of 10000 men sent to capture it was turned back by 300 French Canadians in the woods south of Montreal.

[Bosh]

Especially given that there are not that many areas that we can shift troops out of elsewhere in the world without destabilizing the region (DPRK, for instance).

They've already sent a lot of the GIs in Korea to Iraq...

[Admiral]

Originally posted by Bosh

They've already sent a lot of the GIs in Korea to Iraq...

And since then, DPRK has announced a revived nuclear weapons program. Probably not completely linked, but can we be sure?

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Sandman
Why gloat?

I mean, if we ever have a real reason to invade a Muslim country, then it'll be much harder, thanks to the education in warfare the insurgents are getting.

Too bad the Soviets educated them, long, long ago.

The reasons to blame everything on Bush are really getting weak.

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
The "city" you burned was York (now Toronto; then it was barely a frontier outpost, and in burning it down the American forces managed to kill dozens of their own troops when the powder magazine exploded).

You never reached Montreal in that war. A force of 10000 men sent to capture it was turned back by 300 French Canadians in the woods south of Montreal.

My apologies for not having my encyclopedia in front of me when I typed that post. I like to get away from it once in a while, since it's constantly at my side when I'm at work.

Gatekeeper

[notyoueither]

What sort of excuse is this?

Forgive me for talking out of my ass, for my ass needed talking out of?

[Gatekeeper]

Huh? I'm in no mood to be serious right now, that's what the smilie was for.

[notyoueither]

Why not just admit you were wrong and call it a day?

[Gatekeeper]

That's basically what I did when I said I didn't have my encyclopedia — i.e. resources — with me at the time I posted.

Gatekeeper

[techumseh]

York was more than a frontier outpost, it was a reasonable sized town and the capital of Upper Canada (Ontario). The Americans burned the government buildings, including the Legislature, which is why the British returned the favour and burned Washington the next year. This is an event in American history which is little taught in schools and almost never mentioned in polite society. It is particularly overlooked by American media for some reason. Conversely, it is well known in Canada.

[Gatekeeper]

Which brings me back to my original point, which was a response to Agathon saying America got beat by Canada in the war of 1812: " 'Tis true Washington, D.C., was sacked by British forces, but I guess that's to be expected — retribution — when we did something along those lines to Montreal, Canada (I think that's the right city anyway ... [it's actually York])."

Pray tell, where in there did I insult Canada? I'm basically saying we got our just desserts after what we did to York, albeit I had the incorrect city name.

Gatekeeper

[techumseh]

Well you did insult us. And for you punishment you must listen to this song which will educate you on our joint history.

http://www.ampcast.com/LST-72054-mus-128-6424533-0-0-0-DLDLDLAJOREZTOS/The_White_House_BurnedThe_War_of_1812.m3u

[KrazyHorse]

Is that a 3 dead trolls link?

[techumseh]

Yup. One of my favorites. I've seen (and been a victim in) a couple of their improv shows. Next time, I'll remember - Don't make eye contact!

[Mordoch]

Originally posted by Admiral
In the Senate Armed Forces Committee hearing yesterday, it was mentioned that the US is losing about a battalion a month. Not in terms of deaths, but casualties in general, which appear to be 18000. Now, while many of the injured will end up returning to duty, is this really an attrition rate we can afford? Especially given that there are not that many areas that we can shift troops out of elsewhere in the world without destabilizing the region (DPRK, for instance).

Given the lack of apparent/achievable military objectives in Iraq, it is unclear to me at what point we can say "we win," and leave. And as time stretches on toward whenever that point may come, we will continue to lose troops, and at a certain point, we may not be able to replace them all.

Actually you just gave a fairly poor example in my view. While there is the question of whether Kim Jung Ill is crazy enough to think he can win, South Korea is definately capable of dealing with a North Korean invasion on its own. When you look at tanks for instance, North Korea most advanced tank is the T-62, a tank that originally came out in 1961. Most of their tanks are still T-55 varients, which are 1950s technology, and they even have T-34s still in service! By contrast, South Korea has an increasingly large number of rather modern and extremely capable K1 and K1-A1 tanks. South Korea even has some T-80 tanks that if got from Russia in return for forgiving Russia some of the money it owed South Korea. The air force and navies of the two countries come out even more lopsided in South Korea's favor. North Korea does have a fairly large Air Force size wise, but most of it consists of Mig-17s, Mig-19s, and Mig-21s.