Bush: 50 more years in Iraq! Wheeeee!

[kheegster]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30416213.htm

Bush envisions U.S. presence in Iraq like S.Korea
30 May 2007 14:55:45 GMT
Source: Reuters


WASHINGTON, May 30 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush would like to see a lengthy U.S. troop presence in Iraq like the one in South Korea to provide stability but not in a frontline combat role, the White House said on Wednesday.

The United States has had thousands of U.S. troops in South Korea to guard against a North Korean invasion for 50 years.

Democrats in control of the U.S. Congress have been pressing Bush to agree to a timetable for pulling troops from Iraq, an idea firmly opposed by the president.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush would like to see a U.S. role in Iraq ultimately similar to that in South Korea.

"The Korean model is one in which the United States provides a security presence, but you've had the development of a successful democracy in South Korea over a period of years, and, therefore, the United States is there as a force of stability," Snow told reporters.

He said U.S. bases in Iraq would not necessarily be permanent because they would be there at the invitation of the host government and "the person who has done the invitation has the right to withdraw the invitation."

"I think the point he's trying to make is that the situation in Iraq, and indeed, the larger war on terror, are things that are going to take a long time. But it is not always going to require an up-front combat presence," Snow said.

"The president has always said that ultimately you want to be handing primary responsibility off to the Iraqis," he said.

"You provide the so-called over-the-horizon support that is necessary from time to time to come to the assistance of Iraqis but you do not want the United States forever in the front."

Yes, the US has been South Korea for 50 years, but it hasn't had to continuously fend of attacks from the Norks has it?

[Darth Wong]

So we've gone from "not six months" to "50 years?"

Well, I guess that technically, 50 years is not 6 months.

[Tanasinn]

They're going to be hard-pressed to find soldiers who want to stand guard in a hot, dry nation full of people who absolutely despise Americans, or at least want them gone.

[Singular Intellect]

They're going to be hard-pressed to find soldiers who want to stand guard in a hot, dry nation full of people who absolutely despise Americans, or at least want them gone.

What soldiers 'want' doesn't really have much to do with their duties.

[Darth Wong]

They're going to be hard-pressed to find soldiers who want to stand guard in a hot, dry nation full of people who absolutely despise Americans, or at least want them gone.

What soldiers 'want' doesn't really have much to do with their duties.

That only applies once they've already signed up. Recruiting will become a real problem if you know you're in for that kind of shit before you sign up.

[consequences]

They're going to be hard-pressed to find soldiers who want to stand guard in a hot, dry nation full of people who absolutely despise Americans, or at least want them gone.

What soldiers 'want' doesn't really have much to do with their duties.

Soldiers are people, and people last I checked, have emotions. So without drastic changes to the stop-loss procedures, or the institution of a draft, they are going to have a hell of a time finding the needed warm bodies to maintain a fifty year occupation. If anything, this is going to create a feedback loop, where they lose more people, have to cycle soldiers back to Iraq faster, pissing them and rthe general populace off, and making more choose not to stay in/join.

[Darth Servo]

I know a couple morons who keep trying to "justify" continued US military presence in Iraq by insisting that pulling out now will mean another war there in 10 years. They never can explain why this (even if they could somehow prove it) is worse than continued fighting there over the next several decades.

[Singular Intellect]

They're going to be hard-pressed to find soldiers who want to stand guard in a hot, dry nation full of people who absolutely despise Americans, or at least want them gone.

What soldiers 'want' doesn't really have much to do with their duties.

That only applies once they've already signed up. Recruiting will become a real problem if you know you're in for that kind of shit before you sign up.

Potential recruits and actual soldiers are two different things. He said soldiers, so I took that to mean individuals already signed up.

Anyhow, I certainly agree with your point.

[Glocksman]

In South Korea the US is providing security against a Nork invasion, and isn't trying to put down a native insurgency.
Is Bush really this clueless?
The question is purely rhetorical, as he's proven himself to be clueless time and time again.

[Patrick Degan]

Bush is decidedly out of his tiny mind. Political support for his egofest war is bottoming out and sooner or later the financial and/or logistical supports for the effort are going to collapse. Additionally, the budding three-way civil war makes our presence in Iraq increasingly untenable. No, Georgie the Stupider is speaking from his little delusional world but it makes little difference as he slides a bit more every day into irrelevancy and the pressure for withdrawal mounts.

[wolveraptor]

Someday, some historial will write an alternate history of the United States where Bush just became a baseball comissioner like he always wanted, and none of this shit ever went down.

[Darth Wong]

Someday, some historial will write an alternate history of the United States where Bush just became a baseball comissioner like he always wanted, and none of this shit ever went down.

But on 9/11 Rudy Ghouliani grabbed the arm of the police chief and said "Thank God that George Bush is our president", remember? How can you deny the truth of His words?

[Darth Servo]

Someday, some historial will write an alternate history of the United States where Bush just became a baseball comissioner like he always wanted, and none of this shit ever went down.

But on 9/11 Rudy Ghouliani grabbed the arm of the police chief and said "Thank God that George Bush is our president", remember? How can you deny the truth of His words?

Refresh my memory. Why did he think Bush being POTUS made 9/11 less horrible?

[Glocksman]

Someday, some historial will write an alternate history of the United States where Bush just became a baseball comissioner like he always wanted, and none of this shit ever went down.

Like this?

[wolveraptor]

Someday, some historial will write an alternate history of the United States where Bush just became a baseball comissioner like he always wanted, and none of this shit ever went down.

But on 9/11 Rudy Ghouliani grabbed the arm of the police chief and said "Thank God that George Bush is our president", remember? How can you deny the truth of His words?

Refresh my memory. Why did he think Bush being POTUS made 9/11 less horrible?

Because saying so would win him that last 28%?

[Pelranius]

So can we make Bush ambassador to Iraq once his term in office is up?

After all, it is his cake and only fitting that he should get to eat it. (plus we wouldn't have to put up with him becoming a motivational city and touring every one of the fifty states that way)