If there is a massive offensive, will it push the insurgents back into Baghdad proper and will they begin to terrorize there once again or will this truly be a battle until the end?

Would that push be led, in force, by the Iraqis, of is this another U.S. mission that will bear a striking resemblance to missions in Vietnam, missions where U.S. troops fought and died to take positions and then turned them over to ARVN troops only to see them give it back to the NVA/VC and then U.S. troops have to go back, fight and die once again, all to re-take that very same useless position, and do it over and over, all within a very short period of time?

I am seriously of the belief that we are about to see a religious war fought between Shiite sects that hold different beliefs, a civil war if you will, but unlike the last few battles where the fight was between Sunnis vs Kurds vs Shiites, this time it appears to be an issue between the Shiites and differences in their own ideology.

We learned some very valuable lessons in Vietnam, we learned that no one fights as hard as an individual that is fighting for his beliefs and his home, and that’s what people like al-Sadr and his followers are doing, fighting for their beliefs and their homes.

Do I think al-Sadr and his ilk are right? No, I don’t, I believe that their vision for Iraq is one from centuries ago, I didn’t think the NVA and VC were right either, but it was their land, their homes and their war, and WE stuck our noses in it, and in doing so we lost over 54,000 U.S. troops dead, spent untold BILLIONS of our tax dollars and then we walked away with our tails tucked between our legs, and we gained exactly nothing for our efforts, until years later, when you fast forward to today and Vietnam has become a valuable trading partner, and that was accomplished without us staying in Vietnam for the last 50 years as we continued to lose more troops and massive amounts of money.

You would think those lessons would have been learned by the Bush administration, because as the saying goes ‘those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it’, and I feel we are going to continue to repeat many of the same mistakes from the past as we persevere in Iraq.

We WON the initial battle in Iraq when we went in 5 years ago, no surprise there, look at what we were up against, a bunch of thugs with guns and a maniacal dictator for a leader, a leader that had even less warfighting ability than The Bush himself, and what happened next? Bush and Company make one hell of a mess out of what should have been the peace, and at this time there appears to be no end in sight, unless our president allows the military to do the job that must be done, eliminate the insurgency by any means necessary and then push the Iraqi government into standing on it’s own as they defend and protect their nation.

For crying out loud, we’ve been trying to pacify Iraq for over 5 years now, Iraq, a nation that is approximately the same size in land area as the state of Texas.

We were in and OUT of WWII in 3 years and 9 months, ask yourself WHY folks, WHY it has taken this long in Iraq, and ask yourself WHY it’s not over, then look to Washington, D.C., there’s your answer, this Debacle in Iraq is still going on because of the leadership, or, should I say, lack OF leadership that is the Bush administration, and it’s NOT from lack of trying on the part of our troops, the troops have given everything they have to give, a 110% effort, and what do THEY get for that effort?? Orders to go back and do it all over again, several times in some cases, some units are currently serving their 3rd and 4th combat deployments to Iraq.

And as some other bloggers have said so eloquently, Bush and Cheney are making BILLIONS in war contracts, maybe they are, maybe they’re not, I won’t make an accusation I can’t prove, so, this isn’t an accusation on my part, but many have speculated that this is the real reason Iraq has been such a drawn out confrontation.

Follow the money they say! Makes sense to me.

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