Hindsight 20/20: Iraq and Afghanistan: would you do it?

[Zanza]

Actually, with 20/20 hindsight, I would just have bombed the terror camps in Afghanistan in 2000 and arrested the fucks in Hamburg.

[Ideologue]

Actually, with 20/20 hindsight, I would just have bombed the terror camps in Afghanistan in 2000 and arrested the fucks in Hamburg.

How would the precogs have responded to a war, anyway?  Did it have to be legal murder?  That seems arbitrary.

[CountDeMoney]

Unless you were thinking about doing the Iran thing around the same timeframe as Iraq.

Yes, I am.  The "Axis of Evil" speech set the stage as a direct policy statement with historical implications.  Want to stop terrorism?  You go straight for the biggest state sponsor.  And uncovering and verifying the facilities at Natanz and Arak through 2002-3 with European assistance and IAEA credibility was just the icing on top. 

Bush had the opportunity to reposition the US with the greatest post-Cold War US foreign policy initiative imaginable, with the absolute moral authority on two of the most justifiable international security concerns in today's world:  addressing the state actors that actively support terrorism, and enforcing nuclear non-proliferation.  It doesn't get much more international than that. 

But no. Never had so much international support and sympathy had been pissed away so completely by going after Iraq.  Goddamned shame, really.

Okay, so let's hear some details for your 2003 plan to deal with Iran.

I would start with you skullfucking a dead fetus in its caved-in cranium on pay-per-view, fucknut.

But by all means, keep the party line and defend Iraq instead of the alternatives Dubya pissed away.   Schmuck.

[Ed Anger]

Hindsight? Let's do "if Ed was President"

1) Nuke Pakistan and Afghanistan.
2) Let 'em starve in Iraq.
3) Naked hot tub party with Condi

Or did I already post in this thread? I can't remember. OMG THE DRUGS

[derspiess]

I would start with you skullfucking a dead fetus in its caved-in cranium on pay-per-view, fucknut.

But by all means, keep the party line and defend Iraq instead of the alternatives Dubya pissed away.   Schmuck.

It was an honest question.  Shouldn't be too hard for you to outline President Seedy's plan for smacking down Iran.  You've obviously given it a bit of thought.

[mongers]

I would start with you skullfucking a dead fetus in its caved-in cranium on pay-per-view, fucknut.

But by all means, keep the party line and defend Iraq instead of the alternatives Dubya pissed away.   Schmuck.

It was an honest question.  Shouldn't be too hard for you to outline President Seedy's plan for smacking down Iran.  You've obviously given it a bit of thought.

Does anyone have a workable plan for that ?

Perhaps the Iranians will turn out to be the 'Vietcong' of the Middle East ?

[CountDeMoney]

Does anyone have a workable plan for that ?

Didn't have to be any less workable than Iraq. 

Without issuing my 145-page treatise on dealing with Iran early in the post-9/11 world, a concentrated international effort in eliminating their support for Hezbollah, combined with political and severe economic pressure on the Iranian government to cease and desist their nuclear ambitions. Don't like it, don't want to play ball?  Fine.  Punitive, sustained military action in degrading their assets while still pursuing a political track, until they came to the realization that openly supporting terrorism and terrorist proxy wars along with an illicit nuclear program that would not be allowed by the international community would be cost prohibitive.  There were a myriad of policy choices available.  Imagine how impactful a sustained international effort, economically, politically, and militarily could've been in 2002, 2003, 2005.

For a moment not seen in decades, we had the moral high ground to enforce the will of the international community on Iran, and the political currency back it up with force.  All those years of bullshit murder by Hezbollah from Lebanon to Argentina, all those dead Marines in Beirut, the tab that had been running from 1979 would've finally been due.  Terrorism and non-proliferation?  You can't lose on that.  And that's what the Axis of Evil speech was all about.

But no, the Class of '91 didn't want to hear it.  Unfinished business.  And completely unnecessary.

Perhaps the Iranians will turn out to be the 'Vietcong' of the Middle East ?

They sure as shit aren't going to become the post-war Germans.

[citizen k]

Perhaps the Iranians will turn out to be the 'Vietcong' of the Middle East ?

The Viet Cong were 'proxies', Iran uses 'proxies'.

[Ideologue]

Unless you were thinking about doing the Iran thing around the same timeframe as Iraq.

Yes, I am.  The "Axis of Evil" speech set the stage as a direct policy statement with historical implications.  Want to stop terrorism?  You go straight for the biggest state sponsor.  And uncovering and verifying the facilities at Natanz and Arak through 2002-3 with European assistance and IAEA credibility was just the icing on top. 

Bush had the opportunity to reposition the US with the greatest post-Cold War US foreign policy initiative imaginable, with the absolute moral authority on two of the most justifiable international security concerns in today's world:  addressing the state actors that actively support terrorism, and enforcing nuclear non-proliferation.  It doesn't get much more international than that. 

But no. Never had so much international support and sympathy had been pissed away so completely by going after Iraq.  Goddamned shame, really.

Okay, so let's hear some details for your 2003 plan to deal with Iran.

I would start with you skullfucking a dead fetus in its caved-in cranium on pay-per-view, fucknut.

But by all means, keep the party line and defend Iraq instead of the alternatives Dubya pissed away.   Schmuck.

If we did things my way, all three Axis members would already be blossoming democracies.

[Siege]

Do both differently competently using hindsight.

This.

[Camerus]

Afghanistan you really have no choice with.  The USA's hand was forced, and in some ways the least costly strategy is attempting nation building, futile though it may be.

Iraq, fuck no.