[Blacksmith]

Hell you would not have won the Civil War if it had been up to the Democrats.

[oswald622]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', 'H')ow did they invade Indonesia and Bangladesh? By land across India or by boat across the Indian Ocean?

[Keith_McClary]

The religion of the German Nazis was Lutheran or Roman Catholic - the Pope or Lutheran poo-bahs had no problems,

The Rwandan genocide was perpetrated by Roman Catholics (with no complaint from the Pope). The victims were also Roman Catholics.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Blacksmith', 'H')ell you would not have won the Civil War if it had been up to the Democrats.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilIsMastery', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilIsMastery', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', 'I')sn't it Christians who have been invading and occupying Muslim countries for decades

[Plantagenet]

The US is quite capable of winning conventional wars.

We defeated the Iraq army (twice) and the conventional Taliban forces in Afghanistan in 2001-2.

Guerilla wars are much more difficult to win, and the problems are exacerbated by the new Islamofascist tactics of suicide bombing and mass murder attacks on innocent civilians. The terror attacks are very difficult to stop.

[paimei01]

Iraq is not a war, it's an occupation. It can last forever, always there will be a few "terrorists" to attack the US troops as long as they are there.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('paimei01', 'I')t can last forever.

[paimei01]

It's an occupation, show me an occupied territory where the native population stopped fighting. Maybe in 100 years, or if all the Iraqi people are killed.
Every "terrorist" killed creates another one or more, also they have that religious holy war thing

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('paimei01', 'I')t's an occupation, show me an occupied territory where the native population stopped fighting.

[Blacksmith]

The way I see it you only fight wars you can win. Iraq is a police action to keep the peace between the Kurds, Schites and Sunnis. Time to change statigies or at least have one. Admit it a resource war and occupy the oil field from which all non US personnel are excluded. Leave the rag heads fight each other. Then pump the hell out of the oil fields sort of like "Drink Canada Dry".

[mekrob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Anyone who wishes to invade Indonesia has to do so by boat

[Zardoz]

The fun is just beginning in Indonesia:

Islamic hard-liners gather in Jakarta

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')early 90,000 followers of a hard-line Muslim group packed a stadium in the Indonesian capital Sunday, calling for the creation of an Islamic state.

Hizbut Tahrir, a Sunni organization with an estimated million members, is banned in some Asian and Arab countries, but drew supporters from Europe, Africa and the Middle East to Indonesia for a meeting of the group that is held every two years.

Speeches called for the return of the caliphate, or Islamic statehood, across the Muslim world. The crowd, divided into sections for women and men, roared in support.

[OilIsMastery]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', 'A')nybody who says that Indonesia is a, largely, Muslim nation because of violence is someone in deep need of a history lesson.

[paimei01]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he crowd, divided into sections for women and men, roared in support

[Eli]

I think the era of asymmetric warfare has stacked the cards against the US and our fighting style.

Also, people are much more aware of the costs and casualties of war. The bombing of Dresden and Tokyo would not be tolerated by many people in the US.

This is in large part the United States own fault supporting the myth that warfare could some how become a precise operation is self defeating, that warfare would become more humane.

Warfare has always been and always will be about killing people, destroying lives and societies. The only thing new is the idea that we can somehow sugar coat that fact.

Take Iraq for example the way to solve the problems there are not to try and somehow form a coalition or attempt to democratize waring sanctions with long bloody histories. The way to win the war is to setup someone just like Saddam Husein.

Screw the Shiites and the Kurds roundup every able body man that could possibly hold a gun and kill them. Pick a side that wins and don't stop until the losers are overcome with despair and unable to fight. I am not personally advocating this solution but it is a reality of war. Choose your enemies and then give them all the war and hell you can until they give up all hope of victory. Fight them and inflict pain on them until all they want and pray for is for the pain to stop.

[evilgenius]

The same problem plagues all empires. Largely, though, not entirely America won because it was too expensive for Britain to send the numbers required.

The problem in Iraq, however, is the export land model. I have always said that the only way to insure victory would be to give the Iraqis their own oil, so that they can find the merits of capitalism. Capitalism is the great destroyer of myth and social construct. Capitalism would have the Sunni and the Shia cooperating with each other the way that the Saudis cooperate with the West.

Yes, imagine an Iraq where the breakdown is along labor and management lines and not religious lines. Scary for the West, isn't it. They would fail to obey.

[Denny]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'T')he US is quite capable of winning conventional wars.

We defeated the Iraq army (twice) and the conventional Taliban forces in Afghanistan in 2001-2.

Guerilla wars are much more difficult to win, and the problems are exacerbated by the new Islamofascist tactics of suicide bombing and mass murder attacks on innocent civilians. The terror attacks are very difficult to stop.

[mekrob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')ndonesia is not Muslim because it is violent. Rather it is violent because it is Muslim.

[OilIsMastery]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', 'I')ndonesia is violent? Indonesia has about 2000 murders per year. Terrorism is negligible.