Piano World Home Page Forums Restricted and Archives The Coffee Room Is the war over in 9 days?

I have a serious question about this. Iraq will be a sovereign nation in nine days. We will still have troups there for the foreseeable future. "Mission Accomplished!" was declared over a year ago.

Does that mean we will no longer be "A Nation At War" concerning Iraq? If so, does that mean that prisoners of war must be released? Does it affect any of the "enemy combatants" held at Guantanamo and elsewhere?

Does anyone know?

But the war with Iran is just getting started....

jf

The POWs will have to be repatriated, not released. There are some protocols for this, including using intermediaries when the two sovereign nations are at war with each other. Since we won't be at war with the new Iraqi government I imagine it will be more direct.

The main thing you want to watch for is the establishment of a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). This is a significant document, close to treaty level in importance, governing the details of US troops in a host country, covering things like who gets jurisdiction over troops and citizens in legal matters, what rules of engagement the troops will operate under, when and where live fire exercises may be conducted, and so forth. Every soldier arriving in a country with an active SOFA is supposed to get a briefing on the important points.

The detainees at Guantanamo are likely to be unaffected, unless we, the Red Cross, and Iraq agree that one of them is an Iraqi national that should be repatriated.

What war? We don't even know who we are fighting. Al-Sadr? Sistani? Baathists? (Nah, we gave them Fallujah). Former followers of Saddam Hussein? Iranian infiltrators? Al-Qaeda? Arab nationalists from Syria? Sunnis? Israelis based in Kurdistan?

Mission accomplished. We've got the forward military base. We've got control of the pipeline. What more could we ask for?

please.....

Do you think, - Shant, that we should let terrorism be a force equal to legal transaction?

What do YOU think? What do YOU suggest?

I thought it was Syria?

That one too......

jf

I have written at very long length in the past regarding what I think we should do. To repeat again, I think we should cut the best possible deal with Sistani, including doing whatever we can to protect the Kurds, and GET OUT. Immediately. Tomorrow if not sooner. (If we cut a good enough deal, which we can do now but are less likely to be able to do later, we might even get Wolfowitz's forward military base - in Kurdistan - and control of a pipeline.) Will it be a mess there afterwards? Oh, probably. And Sistani is the best possible man to clean it up.

Hold a victory parade. As Karl Rove notes, we have likely created enough enmity in the Middle East to last decades. We have squandered a veritable ocean of international goodwill that existed after 9/11. We have created terrorists where they didn't previously exist.

The maintenance of the torture school, and Reagan's blessing of Saddam Hussein, and funding of Islamic proto-Al-Qaeda extremists in Afghanistan, emboldening them to take on the superpowers, is now coming home to roost. It is time to turn over a new page. It will take 20-30 years. It took 20-30 years to create this mess, and it won't end quickly.

your first paragraph is good.

The last paragraph is straight from a fun house mirror.

The apple quote?

No.

Sorry, your nimble fingers managed to post behind apple, before I could manage my-not-so-witty remark.

Is that a left rag?

That sums it up pretty well, doesn't it?

jf

except it doesn't take into account our support of Israel which was in place long before 9/11. That's a BIG part of the equation.

As to creating terrorists... Really! our actions might have spurred a little recruitment activity, but we've accomplished much to curtail their world-wide influence. I'll have to think of an appropriate analogy for that faulty supposition while I spray for bugs in Kansas.

I'm sorry, but that only sums it up for those who don't have a clue what's going on.

For example:
"Mission Accomplished!" was declared over a year ago.

No, it wasn't. This has been hashed out over and over again, and only those who refuse to pay attention because of ideological blinders keep repeating this. Bush was talking to a crew of sailors who were about to dock after finishing their tour. He was talking to *them*. He was not talking to the nation at large. For them, their mission *was* accomplished. This is one of the problems with the Left - they take things out of context and use the resulting mess they've made to support their weak logic. Bush didn't say "the war is over". He told a crew whose mission was accomplished, "mission accomplished.

Or this one:
Does that mean we will no longer be "A Nation At War" concerning Iraq? If so, does that mean that prisoners of war must be released? Does it affect any of the "enemy combatants" held at Guantanamo and elsewhere?

Does anyone know?

Yes Cindy, lots of people know. It's only the ones who drink the blue Koolaid that don't know. We are in a war against terrorism. Iraq is not the entire war, it is just one of several fronts in the war. No, the prisoners won't be released, because the war against terrorism is still going on.

But the war with Iran is just getting started....

The war is against terrorists, and those who support them. One goal is to keep nuclear capability out of the hands of terrorists. Iran is up to their neck in helping terrorists. They are threatening to build nukes. If Iran wasn't doing these things, no one would bother them. As it is, we need to do something.

What war? We don't even know who we are fighting. Al-Sadr? Sistani? Baathists? (Nah, we gave them Fallujah). Former followers of Saddam Hussein? Iranian infiltrators? Al-Qaeda? Arab nationalists from Syria? Sunnis? Israelis based in Kurdistan?

Sooner or later you have simply *got* to learn to think rationally.

he maintenance of the torture school, and Reagan's blessing of Saddam Hussein, and funding of Islamic proto-Al-Qaeda extremists in Afghanistan, emboldening them to take on the superpowers, is now coming home to roost. It is time to turn over a new page. It will take 20-30 years. It took 20-30 years to create this mess, and it won't end quickly.

I take that back. You are incapable of rational thought.

No, the war won't be over in 9 days. This may come as a shock to a few of you, but there are people out there who want to destroy us. Don't give me that crap about how we caused them to hate us, they want to destroy Europe too. Including France, their butt kissing friends. This is not a political game we're involved in, it is a fight for the survival of civilization.

Some of you have life too easy. It might be good for a few of you to have to live under the oppression this group would like to put you for a while do you can get your sense of perspective back.

To every thing, there is a reason...spin...spin...spin....

jf

Larry, sometimes, I can't believe how full of it you are. It is well documented that Mission Accomplished banner was ordered and orchestrated by the W's staff as part of his elaborate PR schtick. This from the NY Times.

The most elaborate - and criticized - White House event so far was Mr. Bush's speech aboard the Abraham Lincoln announcing the end of major combat in Iraq. White House officials say that a variety of people, including the president, came up with the idea, and that Mr. Sforza embedded himself on the carrier to make preparations days before Mr. Bush's landing in a flight suit and his early evening speech.

"Media strategists noted afterward that Mr. Sforza and his aides had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the "Mission Accomplished" banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot. The speech was specifically timed for what image makers call "magic hour light," which cast a golden glow on Mr. Bush." Times Article Link

Actually that whole article is a very interesting read about the huge amount of energy (and money - mine and yours, I might add ) that goes into presenting W's little Hallmark moments. Read about the staging of his day after 9-11 poses if you care for a little indigestion.

kathyk

The Abraham Lincoln's mission was accomplished. That is why they came home. Here is an email from a reader that was posted on the NRO weblog this morning:

I've been in the Navy for 15 years and have done a med cruise.

The "Mission Accomplished" banner was on our ship when we returned from the Med in 1993, and is a common banner used on Navy ships at the end of a deployment.

After two months of workups prior to shipping out and six months at sea, the crew of a Navy ship have accomplished their mission. Because if they hadn't, they'd be steaming home.

That the Democratic Party has tried to spin this into something that it's not is just another example of why they cannot be trusted to defend this nation.

Obviously, the White House did not invent this banner.