What do you think the states have achieved in Iraq??

What has been achieved in Iraq ? --chaos--

Exactly what advisors told Junior would happen if he took the centralized government down !! But, he had a vandetta and a hankerin' to git that dude ---so with a few well placed tall tales and a very false premise (remember the WMD deal ??) he took us in---and once the centralized government was toast-- so was order on any level !!

Colin Powell himself told the Dude -- you break it-- you've bought it !!----Now we are paying the price--- a quagmire of factional fighting--- Growing hatred of the U S---(the most admiring of the Iraqi people seem to be the ones on Haliburton's pay roll )-- and no civil way out -- to leave would mean unbelievable blood shed that would make what is happening there now look like a kindergarden picnic in comparison !! The growing resentment is spawning new recruits among the very people we are there to "help"----so--- in short----chaos !!!

On the other hand -- our service men and women are the finest people that ever lived and they are doing the absolute best that could ever be expected out of ANYONE in a similar situation-- they are dealing with impossible tasks here-- and what they are doing and how they are able to do anything at all is at the beck and call of the higher ups that seem to be perfectly happy to allow things to just continue on and on infinatum with same actions leading to same responses over and over and over etc etc with no REAL progress and a lot of very real lives being lost !!

I think there's one LARGE fundamental problem in Iraq...

The Middle East way of life is not attuned to Democracy.

Yet there we are, removing their leader (which, yes, was a very evil man) and turning a heavily Muslim country into a Democracy. Look at the rest of the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is a Kingdom. Iran poses as some sort of Republic. Pakistan is really screwed up, their leader doesn't even have full support from his own government. The only truly "peaceful" part of the Middle East is Jordan, and they are certainly not a Democracy.

We should have sort of other leadership there. What type, I do not know. I'm not paid to make that decision. However, it's becoming more and more apparent that that part of the world lives differently than we do, and what works here in the west, in Europe, and in India, does not necessarily work there.

Countries in that area need a leader, not leadership, someone who can make a decision, and that's what it will be. A government where one man & his trusted group makes all the decisions not only works with their political history, but with their religious one as well.

We're imposing our way of life on them, and it's not taking. I enjoy the way our government is structured (even though it has problems), and I'm sure they like theirs, too. It's the only type of government they've ever known, and it's understandable they don't want to change. I some other country came in and said that Democracy is bad, I'd resist change too. Now, the U.S. isn't anywhere like what Iraq was, but I hope you get my point.

I think that Mr. Bush and not the USA has achieved the best mess ever and that Iraqi people were better off under Saddam after the firts Gulf War. Read the blogs of the Iraqis in exile or still in Iraq and they all are desperate and bitter. What we have now in Iraq is an extermination of the Iraqi people by themselves. Appalling !

All the United States has achieved in Iraq is the largest quagmire since Vietnam or the Soviets in Afghanistan. This war of liberation has allowed the birth of sectarian violence among the sunni's and the shia's. This Civil war was fostered by Al Qaida and nations such as Iran has led to a destablized gov't in Iraq, A weak Iraqi army and police force that doesn't believe in its mandate, and who more likely than not have ties to either side of the sectarian conflict (ie; Sunni Vs. Shia ). As bad as it sounds the United States has 2 options at best. 1)Pull out and admit that they broke it and couldn't fix it to the world or 2)Commit more troops (as bad as that sounds) to the ground in Iraq focus on sectarian relations as much as on catcing terrorists, personally I think this war is as useless as the war on drugs because so much money gets spent but nothing gets any better.

Unfortunately, instead of being looked at as the Country with the "Big Stick" they are being viewed with increased contempt.

I have great respect for the American people and the better way of life that can be obtained in a democracy, but it's plain ignorance if we believe the rest of the world wants the same thing. If you haven't experienced living in the middle east you'll never really know how tragic this situation really is.

we proved Bush is a cowboy, and that the United States could squash and kill everything in IRAQ in under a couple months..

HOWEVER... when we decide to stop killing and police the area, our sense of being as a soldier is gone. soldiers are killers, not police. When a soldier is not killing, he is giving the enemy a chance to go cause mayhem elsewhere. So,... with that said... killing Sadam was probably more of a goal than policing the area, as BUSH didnt think of this.

The art of war says,

It is better to take a government with its leaders still in tact so that we may better have the people under control.

Bush "Art of war? excuse me, eh heh heh heh, is that the guys that sing that Low rider song?"

As the saying goes, good neighbors, and neighborhoods and the right to bear arms in ones house make good police.

when chaos is in a country, its people are confused and divided, thus not good neighbors.

All hell breaks loose

I beg to differ.. but believe me i can tell you the US has infact avoided a major disaster on itself by invading disaster...the consequence of inaction would have been much greater...saddam was alomst in the process as making WMDs in concert with teorrists however the result has been bad,bt a major disaster for the US citizens has been averted...if iraq had been ignored...The whole US would have been held hostage by the threat of a nuclear attack by iraq of the terrorists

What they have achieved?Probably a Unique historical achievement; something which only Saladin and sultan Bibars had previoully achieved:to unite most of the muslims under the banner of the profet against an enemy of their faith(tzihad),primarily USA and secondary west and the Christians...

I thought that after Clinton and the Yugoslavian blunder the americans would pause to reflect agaist their inherent naivete regarding their superficiality in external affairs but no!Irak...

Not a thing, as far as I'm concerned, except getting 3,000+ of our own people killed, and who-knows-how-many thousands of Iraqis.

I am agree with you. Instead of achievements its a BIG loss for US as well as for Iraq.