You can't seriously be comparing the security situation in Iraq, where hundreds of thousands of troops are and a violent civil war is raging, to Kosovo?

and what was the justification? Joseph Biden whining... "well, we gotta do something!"

Daedalus:

60% disapprove of King Idiot, too.

We'll see what percentage of the Iraqi people "disapprove" of freedom in the upcoming election.

Oh, and by the way- Kosovo is no longer a war zone.

Hmmm, I wonder why the troops serving in Kosovo are authorized "combat patches" then?

If William Jefferson Clinton or Al Gore had been the one to send troops to Iraq to get rid of Saddam, you'd be defending that action against a host of people from the other side saying that the liberals had gotten us into an unwinnable war.

Figment of your imagination--it never would have happened.

Figment of your imagination--it never would have happened.

Such figments of imagination are what regularly pass for arguments from the left here ("If we had known X, or not been told Y, we never would have approved Z."). Very little constructive or helpful, just a lot of "coulda, shoulda, woulda".

Cheers,
Daiwa

Apples and oranges--there are 156K troops and some 25,000 coalition forces in Iraq while there is a minimal number of AMerican troops, together with an overwhelming majority of allies.

Apples to Apples.  Why is the MSM and the left not yelling for an exit strategy from Kosovo?  It is a valid question.  The number of troops is irrelevant.

Exit strategy is the liberal word for "surrender".

I think the mistake must reside partly with the Bush administration for using the term "mission accomplished." I think to most people take that to mean the hard part is over, and that's why a time table to finish cleaning up is expected.

While it was the accomplishment of a major objective, it didn't marke the completion of the Iraq mission. Call it a mistake based on initially underestimating the insurgency, but it became apparent shortly after the "mission accomplished" announcement that this was not the case, and probably should have been more forcefully retracted, until the overall mission - which I take to be an independent, democratic, stable Iraq, free of Saddam Hussein, with the ability to defend itself against both internal and external threats - is completed.

but the reality is, and I mean what is happening in the real world and not your little fantasy world, is that Iraq is embroiled in a civil war right now. Why don't you go sign up to fight there? I thought civil war was when civilians took up arms and fought, since when have the Iraqis started fighting with each other?

Looks like for a while...

Civil War In Iraq? by William S. Lind Observers continue to ask, "Will Iraq descend into civil war?" The answer is that civil war is already underway in Iraq. Most people do not see it, because it is not following the Sunni/Shi'ite/Kurd fault lines on which we have been lead to focus. As is usually the case in war, we are the victims not of deception but of self-deception. In Iraq's civil war, the most prominent faction is what America calls Iraq's "government." It is, of course, not a government, because there is no state. The "government's" goal is to recreate an Iraqi state and become a real government. What are its chances of success? At the physical level, the "government" is undoubtedly the most powerful faction in Iraq's civil war. It has more money and more troops than any competitor. It also has the U.S. military behind it, as we have seen recently in Fallujah, where the Iraqi "government" has approved and even provided intelligence for American air strikes. But at the moral level, the Iraqi "government" is probably the weakest faction, weaker even than the elements still fighting for Saddam. The reason is that it is an American creation and puppet - a Quisling regime, formed and propped up by a now-hated invader. If it is to have any hope of legitimacy, it must cut the strings to the American puppeteer. So far, it shows no ability to do that. Its one serious effort to date has been to hint at some sort of amnesty for anti-American resistance fighters, a move that could help split its opposition. But that move was stopped cold by the United States, in a way that demonstrates to Iraqis and the world who is really in charge

You can't seriously be comparing the security situation in Iraq, where hundreds of thousands of troops are and a violent civil war is raging, to Kosovo?

Of course the troops in Kosovo don't matter to you, the press hasn't told you they matter... so they don't.

Looks like for a while... Civil War In Iraq? by William S. Lind Observers continue to ask, "Will Iraq descend into civil war?" The answer is that civil war is already underway in Iraq. Most people do not see it, because it is not following the Sunni/Shi'ite/Kurd fault lines on which we have been lead to focus. As is usually the case in war, we are the victims not of deception but of self-deception. In Iraq's civil war, the most prominent faction is what America calls Iraq's "government." It is, of course, not a government, because there is no state. The "government's" goal is to recreate an Iraqi state and become a real government. What are its chances of success? At the physical level, the "government" is undoubtedly the most powerful faction in Iraq's civil war. It has more money and more troops than any competitor. It also has the U.S. military behind it, as we have seen recently in Fallujah, where the Iraqi "government" has approved and even provided intelligence for American air strikes. But at the moral level, the Iraqi "government" is probably the weakest faction, weaker even than the elements still fighting for Saddam. The reason is that it is an American creation and puppet - a Quisling regime, formed and propped up by a now-hated invader. If it is to have any hope of legitimacy, it must cut the strings to the American puppeteer. So far, it shows no ability to do that. Its one serious effort to date has been to hint at some sort of amnesty for anti-American resistance fighters, a move that could help split its opposition. But that move was stopped cold by the United States, in a way that demonstrates to Iraqis and the world who is really in charge

Thanx for the reply. I learn something new everyday I always say. My bad.