Iraq: An expensive, corrupt Vietnam?

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_3353.shtml

The human and financial costs of the war in Iraq-symbolized by death-a-day news reports and President George W. Bush's $87 billion funding request-are beginning to worry administration insiders.

"If we don't get Iraq right in time," fretted one National Security Council official, "we could lose the election."

Republican Sen. John McCain, who Bush aides hope will campaign for the president in the 2004 election, for the first time compares the situation in Iraq to Vietnam, where he survived six years of wartime imprisonment, and openly distances himself from Bush's war strategy.
"This is the first time that I have seen a parallel to Vietnam," McCain tells Newsweek this week, "in terms of information that the administration is putting out versus the actual situation on the ground. I'm not saying the situation in Iraq now is as bad as Vietnam. But we have a problem in the Sunni Triangle and we should face up to it and tell the American people about it."

Also reminiscent of Vietnam, McCain says, was the administration's reluctance to deploy forces with the urgency required for the quickest victory. "I think we can be OK, but time is not on our side ... If we don't succeed more rapidly, the challenges grow greater." For Bush, the political challenges are growing just as rapidly. Having made one of the most fateful decisions in the modern presidency -- to try to remake the Middle East, starting with Iraq -- he has no choice but to press ahead with his request for the $87 billion, even if it is unpopular, reports Chief Political Correspondent Howard Fineman.

[acmavm]

1. These people sound like they ALMOST have a clue. Not quite, but

almost. Just give them a few billion more, a couple hundred military members who they see as collateral damage, and God only knows how many thousand Iraqis, and they might just come to the reasonable and rational conclusion that they screwed up and better get out fast.

[teryang]

2. Get it right in time?

That point is already long past.

[bryant69]

3. No it's not

While cwetainly it would have been better to stay out before going in--now that we are there there is still the choice between doing the right thing and doing the stupid thing.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[teryang]

5. Sunk costs are no costs

Defense economics 101. I think Lawrence Korb coined this phrase. Doesn't matter what has gone before. Only future costs matter. It was hubris to invade. It is hubris/ignorance to think that we can fix things by staying.

A failed policy can't be fixed. It was doomed before it started. It is still doomed.

[priller]

4. Read the Newsweek article that's referred to in this one

The DU thread is:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=18268

It's a very revealing look at day to day life in Iraq, including the rampant corruption surrounding the CPA.