Iraq options: Stay, add troops or leave (DetFP)

[Bozita]

Frontpage above the fold, swing state

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/war18e_20041018.htm

Iraq options: Stay, add troops or leave
Next U.S. president faces bleak choices in where to go from here

October 18, 2004


BY KEN DILANIAN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS



WASHINGTON -- After almost 19 months of combat, nearly 1,100 U.S. troops dead and $119 billion spent, the central question about Iraq isn't whether it will become a beacon of democracy in the Middle East but whether the United States can prevent it from becoming a black hole of instability.


The answer may depend on whether Americans are willing to stomach what many military analysts say could be a guerrilla war for years to come.


That's true no matter who wins the presidency in November and whether or not an Iraqi election takes place in January, a cross-section of foreign policy experts said.


Iraq's increasingly lethal insurgency has stymied reconstruction and turned large swaths of the country into no-go zones for U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi forces. No major power has hinted that it's willing to send more troops. Germany has ruled that out, and two members of the U.S.-led coalition, Italy and Poland, have talked of withdrawing their soldiers, though neither has yet decided to do so.


Little prospect of a decisive military victory and even less chance of recruiting significant international help leave the next president with the same unpleasant options:

more...

[bemildred]

1. "$119 billion spent"

Bwaaahaaaaahaaaa. Right.
I guess they are trying to be diplomatic to make their point.

[davhill]

2. I thought it was

Over 1100 US dead and over $120 billion wasted as of yesterday.

[MadHound]

3. Leave, now

No matter what we do, no matter what government is put in power in Iraq, no matter how that government is put into power, it will be considered illegal and illegitamite by the Iraqi people. And once the American forces are gone, Iraq will erupt into civil war, and that government will be taken down.

Apparently the US hasn't learned the lesson from our last quagmire war, Vietnam. Instead we are doomed to repeat our mistakes over and over again, will ever more death and destruction as the result.

[Mari333]

4. ----------------

http://www.costofwar.com/

[bemildred]

5. Hi Mari.

Hope you are doing OK.