And the Winner Is...

[KarlXII]

Sure you can.

The point is, was it worth it?

[ICantSpellDawg]

The point is, was it worth it?

Spending $500 million dollars to win a jackpot of $500 million dollars is a nonequivalent comparison. It implies that freedom for 30,000,000 people has a dollar value and that we have met it.

I believe that a stable Iraq without tyrannical rule will be more rewarding than many of us can imagine. For the United States, for Iraq, and for people all over the world.

I'm no stickler for a particular brand of democracy, only that people can appeal to a government that abhors arbitrariness and that answers in a real and reviewable way to its entire constituency.

I think that we need to find the victories in Iraq particularly because it has cost so many so much and is intertwined with an honorable objective.

[KarlXII]

Spending $500 million dollars to win a jackpot of $500 million dollars is a nonequivalent comparison.

I always though lottery's were around 1 million. Hence the "500 million for 1 million".

I believe that a stable Iraq without tyrannical rule will be more rewarding than many of us can imagine. For the United States, for Iraq, and for people all over the world.

Why's that? Why is Iraq so damn special that it's put above places like Sudan where people have been suffering for years? We could've done a damn lot more good helping poor nations get back on their feet. I mean, with all the money we spent on Iraq, we could've been helping out the starving people in the Congo and end the Darfur genocide.

I think that we need to find the victories in Iraq particularly because it has cost so many so much and is intertwined with an honorable objective.

To find non existant weapons?

Which actually raises the question, when did Iraq stop being about the Weapons that we went in for and start becoming the great crusade of liberation? Was it around the "Mission Accomplished" mark?

[ICantSpellDawg]

I always though lottery's were around 1 million. Hence the "500 million for 1 million".

Lottery value varies

Why's that? Why is Iraq so damn special that it's put above places like Sudan where people have been suffering for years? We could've done a damn lot more good helping poor nations get back on their feet. I mean, with all the money we spent on Iraq, we could've been helping out the starving people in the Congo and end the Darfur genocide.

Iraq is special for many reasons. For the ideological reasons it has feet to stand on when we help it up.

Which actually raises the question, when did Iraq stop being about the Weapons that we went in for and start becoming the great crusade of liberation? Was it around the "Mission Accomplished" mark?

When we realized that there were no WMD's. We went in for a number of other reasons, all of which have been consistently articulated for many years.

Security from WMD proliferation was one of the primary objectives and the objective that best helped sell the war to the American people. I beleived then as I blieve now that the war in Iraq has been worth the cost.

[KarlXII]

Iraq is special for many reasons.

Those being?

For the ideological reasons it has feet to stand on when we help it up.

And again, all the money we spent on Iraq, we could be spending getting poorer nations on their feet. But we had to go find those weapons- I MEAN LIBERATE THE MIDDLE EAST FROM HITLER.

[CountArach]

[BigTex]

Nice picture, taken at the end of the Iraq war after the defeat of Sadam's forces and begining of the occupation and rebuilding of Iraq. That is mission accomplished is it not? The enemy was defeated, his country occupied, that is victory. Occupation and insurgency is not a continuation of the war against Sadam's forces. Or are you trying to suggest that Sadam's army wasnt defeated, that the insurgency is a continuation of the defense of Sadam's military?

I don't think so. I think it will be the difference between stopping at the end of the yellow light or at the beginning of the red light.

I believe that we will be there as long under Obama as we would have been under McCain. I believe that we will still have little consultant forces in Iraq for some time. Obama will start to pull out slightly before McCain would have.

Obama isn't stupid, but I won't defend his constituency that called for immediate withdrawl.

I truly hope that will be the case, but Obama still wont give much credit to the effectiveness of the surge.