Ok so there has been a great deal of debate on here about how the war is being mishandled in Iraq and Afghanistan and also about a lot of other defense policies. I tend to agree though I often wonder what exactly I would do differently. So I just wanted to know what any of you thought, maybe how you would handle everything.

9/30/2006 12:40:25 PM

DONT BE SO BROAD IN YOUR TOPIC

9/30/2006 12:51:03 PM

OK

9/30/2006 12:57:15 PM

I think your topic is fine. Its just that it is really really really difficult to decide. First, none of us are really in a position to define a better strategy. We can take shots at one aspect of a policy or another, but its difficult to come up with a good answer for the whole mess.

I'd say we need to do a better job with hearts and minds, but I don't know how to do so. One step may be our trying detainees instead of holding them indefinitely. Then people might see us as more humane (not the terrorists, the regular people in Iraq). But I really haven't a clue how to fix it.

9/30/2006 3:39:36 PM

more troops in afghanistan and not invading iraq

9/30/2006 5:08:52 PM

really really really difficult

9/30/2006 5:08:53 PM

Quote :

"I'd say we need to do a better job with hearts and minds, but I don't know how to do so"

uh, that's simple.

not building naked prisoner pyramids, etc, etc, etc....

not sentencing soldiers to just a few months jail for murdering afghani prisoners.

not torturing.

not committing war crimes.

not sending suspects to arab countries to be tortured.

not holding people forever without either charging them or setting them free.

recognizing mistakes and apologizing to the world and giving compensation. (for example, when people are detained on mere suspicion or faulty intelligence, whether in iraq, afghanistan, the US, cuba, or secret cia jails, and after 6 months of torture and solitary confinement, are set free without an apology or even an admission of mistake, what do you think that does? create terrorists.)

you know, if the US never did those, people would ACTUALLY welcome them with flowers and open arms.

but we all know what the defense for that is:

OMF AT LEAST WE DON'T BEHEAD PRISONERS BLAH BLAH BLAH WE ARE FIGHTING TURRISTS HERE DO YOU THINK THEY TREAT US NICELY WHEN THEY CAPTURE US BLAH BLAH BLAH.

the answer to that is simple. either you play by the book, or you don't. but don't say that you are playing by the book and are a civilized people, when in fact you are not playing by the book.

9/30/2006 7:34:22 PM

^ thats asking quite a bit

i would just start having nationwide hawaiin shirt fridays in Iraq and Afghanistan

9/30/2006 8:13:13 PM

fewer religous nutjob war loving neocons w/ their buttons on the trigger

9/30/2006 8:17:54 PM

OEP, I agree that we shouldn't do those things. I don't think that everything in Iraq would be peachy if we did, because they're spending an awful lot of energy killing one another and not just U.S. soldiers. It would be a start to reducing the anti-U.S. sentiment, but it certainly wouldn't stop the civil disruption, IMHO.

Also, do this comment: [quote]more troops in afghanistan and not invading iraq[quote]
Until I get this damned time machine working, only half of your post is a legitimate response to what we should do now. The other half was a sound-bite.

9/30/2006 11:16:10 PM