We broke it
by AquinasDomer (2024-01-30 17:04:51)

In reply to: It popped up in ground we cleared by removing Saddam.  posted by sorin69

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Thr Iraq war has to be one of the bigger own goals in our history.

Had we not elected to fight it I do wonder how the Arab Spring would have played out. I imagine we'd have gotten involved in stabilizing the region.

"Iran was the only winner." (U.S. Army War College study of
by sorin69  (2024-01-31 12:21:19)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

the Iraq war, released three years ago this month.) I've linked an NPR interview by Mary Louise Kelly with Ret. Col. Frank Sobchak, a co-author of the report. The very first think Sobchak says makes you want to run screaming from the room shouting WHAT THE F DID THEY THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?
This reminds me of Chicago's fight against gangs...
by Kbyrnes  (2024-01-30 18:09:36)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

...The goal for many years was to take down the top guys, e.g., Jeff Fort. So what happened once that tactical approach worked and got the top guys into prison? The mass of little guys fractured into a bunch of undisciplined, freewheeling smaller gangs without the former central coordination of the big gangs. The City had not thought strategically about how to handle that, and we are still living with the shoot-em-up consequences.
Slightly OT but saw a report on stolen guns in TN in the
by wpkirish  (2024-01-31 12:36:32)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

past 10 years. Apparently they made a change to their laws to allow them in cars and trucks 10 years ago. During that decade there have been 30,000 guns stolen from cars or trucks. I am sure no small number of those guns have made their way to Chicago.

The most appalling part of the story is this quote from the lead sponsor.

"Listen, freedom comes with some dangers. That's one of the things that made our country great is that we put the power in people's hands"

Middle Eastern Christians depended on strongmen to protect
by sorin69  (2024-01-31 12:10:52)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

them from populist Islamism: Saddam, Assad, Mubarak...an unsavory crowd to say the least. That's one reason, I'm sure, why the Vatican opposed our invasion of Iraq: they knew it would not lead to better conditions for Iraqi Christians. And it sure as hell hasn't.