Sen. Lindsey Graham: U.S. 'Screwed Up' in Iraq

[kpete]

Sep 11, 12:54 PM EDT

Sen. Graham: U.S. 'Screwed Up' in Iraq

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said the United States has "screwed up" in Iraq, but the idea of the war was correct and pulling out now would lead to more bloodshed across the Middle East.

"I know Iraq is a mess and we have screwed up seven ways from Sunday," the South Carolina senator told about 300 people at the College of Charleston on Sunday.

"We underestimated how hard it would be. But the fundamental idea behind Iraq is still correct," said Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"If we back out of this fight ... your children and grandchildren will never know peace," Graham warned.

He told the audience, "I come here with more questions than answers" about fighting terrorism. "How do you deal with people who have no place on the planet for you?"

more at:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRF_GRAHAM_IRAQ?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Jacobin]

1. ??

"How do you deal with people who have no place on the planet for you?"

Is he talking about the Palestinians? If so, he does know because its in the papers every day.

Can this guy walk and chew gum at the same time?

[BOSSHOG]

2. Yo lindsay

If "we" keep electing republicans, our children and grandchildren will never know peace.

And "we" didn't underestimate how hard it would be. We liberals were screamed at and shouted down and had our patrotism questioned when we opined how hard it would be when we objected to war with Iraq in late 2002.

[raccoon]

8. Absolutely, Bosshog, "we" didn't do all these things Lindsay

says "we" did.

He's such a dip.

[originalpckelly]

3. No Senator Graham, the fundamental idea behind Iraq isn't correct.

And that is shallow happy talk covering up a tragedy.

The fundamental idea behind Iraq, is that we the people of America know what is best for the people of Iraq, but that idea on its face is not at all what democracy is about. Democracy is a form of government which is based upon the idea that individuals know what is best for themselves, and therefore they should choose their own destiny. If we listen to the Senator's words and take everything he said for granted, it shows how undemocratic Iraq truly is. The fact that the American people hold the destiny of Iraq in their hands, is a fundamentally undemocratic fact. It is the very same fact that the colonists in our own country fought against a little over two-hundred and thirty years ago.

Iraq may have a form of government identical to a democracy, but it is not a democracy. It is simply a tyranny of the majority. For a long time the Sunnis controlled Iraq. (Saddam was a Sunni, though he would later adopt the secular ideology of Ba'athism.) Now that the Shi'as have power, because they are a vast majority of the population of Iraq, they are punishing the minority Sunnis. That is tyranny, and the only thing separating it from the tyranny of Saddam is the illusion of democracy. An illusion our own President has been only too willing to encourage, as well as certain of our other politicians. (The ones who have condemned this nation to this fate.)

The same problem exists in the Palestinian's areas, with the internal strife between the Fatah and Hamas parties.

Democracy is far more than a form of government, it is a type of society. A society that is sick and does not practice restraint may look exactly like a democracy in its constitution, but it is a very different nation.

The sad part of all this, is that real democracy is the solution to the problems of the Middle East, but with our politicians calling Iraq and Palestine democracies, I have a feeling few people are receptive to the idea of living in a democracy now.

[neoblues]

4. The fundamental idea...

--breaking the highest International Law?
--marginalizing/working around the U.N.
(thumbing our nose at the rest of the world and making them hate us?)?
--invading sovereign nations (that can't even threaten us)?
--killing or causing the deaths of tens of thousands of other country's citizens?
--wasting hundreds of billions of dollars?
--getting thousands of our service men and women killed and maimed?
--getting ourselves entangled in a losing proposition?
--forever damaging our relationship with Arabs and Muslims?
(also proving the terrorist's depiction of America was right)
--practically destroying and damaging the effectiveness of our military forces?
--creating tens of thousands of mentally wounded citizens?
(many soldiers who will return with mental wounds from being placed in such a situation)
--creating a terrible division and divisiveness between Americans?
--other?

Which of these or what other "funamental idea behind IRAQ was correct"?

[flyarm]

5. "How do you deal with people who have no place on the planet for you?"

would he be speaking of Iraq..where little lord pissy pants thinks he is a emperor , and is stealing the natural resources , building a embassy bigger than the Vatican,and 14 other bases, and has allowed the stealing and destruction of so many the artifacts of Mesopotamia, has destroyed their water, power, their hospitals, their schools, their livelyhoods..their peace of mind, and dignity of life?
The killing of their children , mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and grandfathers??

The raping of their sisters, the imprisonment of innocent people..would that be What Lindsay means by this...

"How do you deal with people who have no place on the planet for you?"

yeah little twirp..we understand how bad the people of Iraq have it with our destroying their country based on lies!! we get it...sooo Lindsay when do we give them their country back..so they have a place on the planet that is rightly theirs??

fly

[Solly Mack]

6. Illegal war apologists slay me...they'll call it a mistake and even go so

far as to say "we screwed up" - but admit America was wrong? Admit the invasion was a crime?

They haven't the integrity. And it's because of that lack of integrity that a future America will find herself bogged down, yet again, in another Iraqnam.

But then, I don't expect a government that sanctioned and carried out an illegal invasion to hold itself accountable.


So I expect to hear words like "mistake" and phrases like "we screwed up" - because those words and phrases serve to shape the "official" version of history instead of what really happened.

[originalpckelly]

7. See reply #3

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