The War is Over.

[ZenOps]

Uh huh. Yeppers.

Time to wrap up the fighter jets in mothballs again.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

....? Did you forget an article link?

[Crymson]

The war is never over. have you not READ 1984?

[BigMass]

The War on Terror ends the same day we win The War on Drugs

[JfuckinC]

Originally posted by BigMass
The War on Terror ends the same day we win The War on Drugs

I'll never let that happen

[NuclearPizzaMan]

Originally posted by BigMass
The War on Terror ends the same day we win The War on Drugs

If the War On Drugs is ever won, ZenOps will stop posting

[Cos]

edit: nm fuck

[Type_S1]

Originally posted by ZenOps
Uh huh. Yeppers.

Time to wrap up the fighter jets in mothballs again.


Uh huh. Yeppers.

Another Failed thread

[iCreep]

No victory lap for Obama as Iraq war ends

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/victory+Obama+Iraq+ends/3465064/story.html

FORT BLISS, Texas - President Barack Obama declared the U.S. combat mission in Iraq officially over Tuesday but said he would not take a "victory lap" because a lot more work remained to be done inside the country.


Obama, thanking troops in Texas before delivering an evening address to the nation, said Iraq now had the opportunity to create a better future for itself, and the United States, as a result, was more secure.


"I wanted to come down to Fort Bliss mainly to say thank you. And to say, welcome home," he told troops, who shouted the traditional Army "Hooah" back to him in greeting.


"I'm going to make a speech to the nation tonight," Obama said. "It's not going to be a victory lap. It's not going to be self-congratulatory. There's still a lot of work that we've got to do to make sure that Iraq is an effective partner with us."


The White House says the removal of all but 50,000 U.S. troops and the declaration of the end to the combat phase shows Obama is fulfilling a campaign promise he made in 2008 to pull out of Iraq.


Obama hopes that message will resonate with Americans ahead of the Nov. 2 elections in which his Democrats are struggling to keep their dominance in the U.S. Congress.


But high unemployment and slowing economic growth have eclipsed the war as the top issue in voters' minds, much as the economy did in 2008 when Obama prevailed over Republican John McCain in the presidential election.


Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser, said Obama would talk about the U.S. economy in the context of the drawdown from Iraq.


"He feels it's very important to refocus resources that we've been spending abroad over the last several years into investing in our economy and our long-term competitiveness here at home," Rhodes told reporters on board Air Force One.


White House spokesman Robert Gibbs previewed the same economic theme in U.S. media interviews earlier in the day.


"The nation he truly wants to rebuild is the nation that he lives in, the United States of America," Gibbs said on ABC television. "We gain our strength abroad from our prosperity here at home. There are steps that we have to take here to continue our recovery to make sure that people are getting put back to work," he said.


The address, scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT, will be Obama's second from the Oval Office. The president used the same high-profile venue in June to discuss his administration's response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.


Obama called former President George W. Bush, who launched the war in 2003, during his flight.


SENSE OF URGENCY, NOT MISSION ACCOMPLISHED


As Obama prepared to deliver his speech, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden flew into Iraq to assure Iraqis the United States is not abandoning them. He met with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani.


Biden's talks took place amid a political deadlock almost six months after an inconclusive election in March over forming the next government.


"Iraq should move forward with a sense of urgency," Rhodes said. "It is time to get down to some of the core issues."


The White House is aware that Obama cannot afford to come across as too triumphant. To do so could evoke comparisons to Bush's May 2003 speech aboard an aircraft carrier. In front of a "Mission Accomplished" banner, Bush announced that major combat operations were over, a move that was seen as a huge misstep after violence soared later.


More than 4,400 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.


"al-Qaida in Iraq is beaten, but not gone," Defense Secretary Roberts Gates said Tuesday. "This is not a time for premature victory parades or self-congratulations, even as we reflect with pride on what our troops and their Iraqi partners have accomplished."


Obama, who opposed the Iraq war, rode a wave of anti-war sentiment that boosted his support within his Democratic Party during the 2008 campaign.


When he took office in January 2009, the U.S. military presence in Iraq was 140,000 troops and it reached a high of around 170,000 under the surge ordered by Bush.


The roughly 50,000 U.S. soldiers still in Iraq are moving into an advisory role in which they will train and support Iraq's army and police.


The effective change on the ground will not be huge because the U.S. military has already been switching the focus toward training and support over the past year. Obama has promised to pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011.


Ahead of the speech, Republicans criticized Obama for what they say is a failure to acknowledge the success of Bush's troop surge in bringing down violence in Iraq. Obama had opposed the 2007 troop increase.


Obama has set July 2011 as the date for a beginning of a drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and he hopes the example of Iraq will reassure his Democratic supporters that he can keep his word.

© Copyright (c) Reuters

[Zephyr]

Soooo.............the economy...........................yeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :facepalm:

[calgary403]

So.......what about the troops in Afghanistan?

:dunno:

[Degrassi_Wheels]

Not sure they could have fucked it worse than they did. Americans will all wash their hands of this, never speak of it again, and all the while some meaner SOB will come into power, and make Saddam look like a saint.

Those who were against the war were all labeled un American and not patriotic... Guess what, they were all right.

4,400 US lives lost... for what?

[black13]

Another war, another failure. History simply repeats itself over and over and over again. :facepalm:

Next up...
http://imgur.com/zoiw5.jpg

[mac_82]

I thought the war was over a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

http://www.newsgroper.com/files/post_images/mission_accomplished.jpg

[broken_legs]

Originally posted by black13
Another war, another failure. History simply repeats itself over and over and over again. :facepalm:

Next up...
http://imgur.com/zoiw5.jpg

I like that picture... a lot. But take issue with your failure comments.

The US now has another foreign military outpost, another sympathetic puppet government and control over the second largest reserves next to Saudi Arabia while it is getting sold off to western corporations. How is that a loss?

It's not like they actually paid for the war - They just printed money and paid for it out of thin air while exporting the inflation to the rest of the world.

They win on all fronts as far as I can see.

[black13]

Originally posted by broken_legs


I like that picture... a lot. But take issue with your failure comments.

The US now has another foreign military outpost, another sympathetic puppet government and control over the second largest reserves next to Saudi Arabia while it is getting sold off to western corporations. How is that a loss?

It's not like they actually paid for the war - They just printed money and paid for it out of thin air while exporting the inflation to the rest of the world.

They win on all fronts as far as I can see.
Yea the US got all the oil and profits, but the war was planned and executed terribly and the actual Iraqi's are now in far worse conditions than before the war.
Supposed $9billion infrastructure money has disappeared, more than 2 million Iraqi's relocated, health care, clean water, sanitations, all are scarce. Violence is still on going.

[thetransporter]

did they win?

[ZenOps]

Depending on how proprosition 19 in California goes on November 2nd, the War on Drugs already lost - Democratically, the only way one should wage and win or lose a war on drugs.

Win? Hard to say.

If the intent was to prop up the economy for a short period of time, then sure, it was a success.

But be prepared for the biggest double dip recession in the history of recessions if that was the main factor now that its over. I'd be willing to bet there are many Germans who are shuffling half of thier assets into gold bullion right now.

Win militarily? as in "Military Solution"? Probably not.

This is yet another one, like Vietnam that the US will be happy to say that they did not "lose" but are definitely not arrogant or believeable enough on a worldwide stage to say they "won". So they will probably just leave it at draw - and move on.

[arian_ma]

Originally posted by broken_legs


I like that picture... a lot. But take issue with your failure comments.

The US now has another foreign military outpost, another sympathetic puppet government and control over the second largest reserves next to Saudi Arabia while it is getting sold off to western corporations. How is that a loss?

It's not like they actually paid for the war - They just printed money and paid for it out of thin air while exporting the inflation to the rest of the world.

They win on all fronts as far as I can see.
How about everyone else who lost on all fronts?

[sillysod]

Nobody's "Won" a war since WWII..., they just play for a bit then peace out.

[n1zm0]

i say they did pretty good for themselves besides fking up the world's economy and increasing the already shitty-as-it-is perception of how the rest of the world views the yankees just a liiiiiittle bit more.

They went in there, disposed of the majority of a country's military in pretty much the first 3 days they were there, removed and 'killed' a dictator hated by even neighboring countries, tested some of their new experimental weapons in-field and improved them while they were there and now have oil reserves and political interest in a part of the world where they needed it.

http://imgur.com/jqrc3.jpg

anyone remember where they were when it first started? i was in a friend's basement, skipping class, drinking coffee and smoking a cig watching fighter jets bomb baghdad.

[ZenOps]

Yeah I remember watching the first bombing raid on Baghdad.

The amount of anti aircraft fire was the most impressive.

Still - Going after a generalized city like that isn't exactly kosher in my book. I don't care if its 90% military, there are still a lot of innocents.

[911fever]

waaa waaa waaa. So many whiners. Hopefully the US can help fix its economy before it's too late.

[Crymson]

Originally posted by n1zm0
anyone remember where they were when it first started? i was in a friend's basement, skipping class, drinking coffee and smoking a cig watching fighter jets bomb baghdad. [/B]

I was sitting outside my GF's work waiting for her to get off, listening to it on the radio in the car when the "deadline" passed.

[CUG]

Originally posted by Crymson


I was sitting outside my GF's work waiting for her to get off, listening to it on the radio in the car when the "deadline" passed. Are we talking Desert Storm, or this last one?

I remember watching shitloads of Wolf Blitzer for Desert Shield/Storm.