The Victory Thread

[Stone]

Here's a question - Will the speed of Iraq's military collapse cause more problems between Arab fundamentalists and the Western world?

Think about it - a lot of civilians in the Middle East seem to take the Iraq war fairly personally, given the way their media has reported, all that. Even if they don't like Hussein, it's seemed to be a matter of pride to many of them - they want Iraq to at least cause us a bit of trouble, you know. A show of some sort of force, something to make their version of civilization in one of its forms seem a bit less weak.

And yet, Hussein's basically been crushed. There was no discernable organized resistance, a whole lot of surrendering, hardly anything that could count as even a minor victory - it almost hasn't been a war up until now. We can say that Iraq was BEATEN, now, even though the war isn't over yet.

Do you guys think this is going to be an issue for many Arabs? A sense of shame over Iraq being overthrown so easily, reactions in response to that. I mean, I'm still fairly sure it was worth it - making some Arabs feel bad isn't reason enough to avoid removing a dictator that threatened the US, and I wouldn't exchange extremist self-confidence for the lives that would have been lost in a more protracted war.

Still, in a way it's a little bit worrying that Iraq lost so quickly and so completely.

[spacecowboy]

Originally posted by Stone
Here's a question - Will the speed of Iraq's military collapse cause more problems between Arab fundamentalists and the Western world?

Think about it - a lot of civilians in the Middle East seem to take the Iraq war fairly personally, given the way their media has reported, all that. Even if they don't like Hussein, it's seemed to be a matter of pride to many of them - they want Iraq to at least cause us a bit of trouble, you know. A show of some sort of force, something to make their version of civilization in one of its forms seem a bit less weak.

And yet, Hussein's basically been crushed. There was no discernable organized resistance, a whole lot of surrendering, hardly anything that could count as even a minor victory - it almost hasn't been a war up until now. We can say that Iraq was BEATEN, now, even though the war isn't over yet.

Do you guys think this is going to be an issue for many Arabs? A sense of shame over Iraq being overthrown so easily, reactions in response to that. I mean, I'm still fairly sure it was worth it - making some Arabs feel bad isn't reason enough to avoid removing a dictator that threatened the US, and I wouldn't exchange extremist self-confidence for the lives that would have been lost in a more protracted war.

Still, in a way it's a little bit worrying that Iraq lost so quickly and so completely.

You bring up an interesting point, but I doubt that Arabs look on this with shame. Saddam was not at all a representation of the Muslim world. When united they can be quite a force. Problem was no one was united under Saddam. The U.S. will find more problems should they attack say Iran. The people there are united and have a very good military. They would have easily defeated Iraq had they not used chemical weapons. So from an Iranian (half, at least) I can say that me and my family look on this with nothing but relief. Now the people are wondering when the U.S. will leave. They don't like the U.S., but they like Saddam even less.

SC

edit: I just want to point out that Iranians are not Arabs. So perhaps my opinion isn't quite as valuable.

[MVS]

I just think it shows how good the Military is.

We can do in weeks what Iran and Russia couldn't do in 10 years to Iraq and Afganistan.

We rule.

[ChaoofNee]

Heheh. That's one way to put it. We do indeed rule.
Still, I doubt the US'll linger in the Middle East longer than it has to. There're bigger things afoot...
/me glares at "Lookit me! Lookit me!" North Korea.

[Almaci]

Meanwhile coalition forces attacked positions of Al Jazeera, Abu Dhabi TV and Reuters.

[YellerDog]

Threatened the US? But... but I thought it was about liberating the Iraqi people!?

[/naive]

[Stone]

Originally posted by Almaci
Meanwhile coalition forces attacked positions of Al Jazeera, Abu Dhabi TV and Reuters.

"Attacked" = "You're Dumb"

(Personal attacks!!!)

I mean, grow up, man - how far away from the Information Ministry were the offices of Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV? How many bombs have we been dropping on the Information Ministry? Would we have used only one errant bomb on the offices of Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV if we actually wanted to attack them ("yuo wanted to make it look like an acident!!")?

You're not entirely stupid, so it's sad when you let stuff like the idea that we would've attack...ah, fuck it. Who cares. You are entirely stupid.

[Almaci]

And how close was the Taliban information ministry to the Al Jazeera offices in Afghanistan?
How about the claims of the millitary that the tank that attacked the Palestine hotel was responding to sniper fire and grenade launcher attacks from the hotel while every journalist there claims there were no attacks originating from there whatsoever?

[Jimmy Carter]

Originally posted by spacecowboy
Saddam may be dead:

Let's hope so. Then we get the hell out of there. So I guess this is the second time we've killed Saddam. I'm looking forward to another 3-4 times before Centcom quits making assumptions.

Not yet. We've got weapons to find.

[Almaci]

Oh and Stone, I just mentioned that the US attacked positions, you wanna deny they did?
i never said a single thing about what their intentions in attacking those positions were or even if it might have been by mistake.
I simply reported a fact so youre reaction to that is way too defensive.
Feeling threatened boy?