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Who Will Be the 2012 Republican Presidential Nominee? Who Will Be the 2012 Republican Presidential Nominee?

10-15-2011 , 05:24 PM
Troops aren't withdrawing from Iraq? Really?


After OBL, Gadaffi, and al-Awlaki, foreign policy is not exactly a winning issue for Republicans this year.
10-15-2011 , 06:08 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by [Phill]
Also Afghanistan and Iraq are on a wind down exactly as everyone talked about at every single point ever.
Maybe in terms of media discussion.

2007: 171 billion
2008: 186 billion
2009: 155 billion
2010: 171 billion
2011: 171 billion

Source: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933935.html

So yeah, with these conservative estimates on the cost of war, America is spending 7% less than they were in the last two years of the Bush administration. Hurray Obama.
10-15-2011 , 06:36 PM
That link lists a copyright date of 2009, so I'm pretty sure that the 2010 and 2011 figures are estimates which predate the changes in strategy that the Obama Administration started that year.

Also, from today's news:
BAGHDAD (AP) – The U.S. is abandoning plans to keep U.S. troops in Iraq past a year-end withdrawal deadline, The Associated Press has learned.

The decision to pull out fully by January will effectively end more than eight years of U.S. involvement in the Iraq war, despite ongoing concerns about its security forces and the potential for instability.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/militar...ops/50786604/1



Most of my unit just got back from a deployment to Iraq. They report that their base was pretty much a ghost town by the end of their tour. And the drawdown (in terms of troop strength, at least) in Afghanistan is actually underway, though it's almost imperceptible and there's no actual end to the war in sight.

I don't know if the cost is actually going down, but the degree of military involvement is clearly being lowered dramatically in Iraq and much less dramatically in Afghanistan.

Last edited by Mayo; 10-15-2011 at 06:38 PM. Reason: Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions, not representative of the Air Force/DoD/anyone else.
10-15-2011 , 06:42 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by General Tsao
lol srsly? romney is about 1000x better than Obama.
Bookmarked for future reference.
10-15-2011 , 06:47 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mayo
I don't know if the cost is actually going down, but the degree of military involvement is clearly being lowered dramatically in Iraq and much less dramatically in Afghanistan.
Yeah, there's a reason I (tried to) cite cost and not casualties or troop numbers. Private military companies are as much a part of America's costs as traditional troops. Especially since we have an all-volunteer military force.
10-15-2011 , 06:55 PM
I get that. But there was a time not so long ago when there were over a hundred thousand troops in Iraq. and now we've got a few thousand civilians. We're not really actively militarily engaged in that country. Four years ago or so, there were airstrikes and firefights and raids on homes and IED attacks all the time. Today, we're not really doing any of that anymore. We've got some people there training. That's it. I'd call that winding down. And the war in Afghanistan is going through a similar transition, though it's nowhere near as far along and it's not going to happen nearly as quickly.

As an aside, I don't quite understand what the military being all volunteer has to do with anything.

Last edited by Mayo; 10-15-2011 at 07:00 PM. Reason: Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions, not representative of the Air Force/DoD/anyone else.
10-15-2011 , 06:57 PM
Mayo according to the AP article NIMN just linked there are currently 41,000 US soldiers in Iraq, not "a few thousand civilians."


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...10-15-14-44-18
Quote:
With the U.S. military presence in Iraq currently at about 41,000 and heading down to zero, almost all of those forces will be flowing out of Iraq into Kuwait and then home or other locations.
10-15-2011 , 07:02 PM
Yes, that's correct. I was referring to what the situation will be once they're all withdrawn in the next two months. Sorry about that.
10-15-2011 , 07:09 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mayo
As an aside, I don't quite understand what the military being all volunteer has to do with anything.
Conscription is slavery and I would certainly rather tax more than force people to risk their lives.

e.g. Goals in order of importance.

1. Reduce forced labor for war.
2. Reduce taxes for war.

Last edited by Scary_Tiger; 10-15-2011 at 07:18 PM.
10-15-2011 , 08:01 PM
This is a really interesting article on Romney and his faith.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/us...ewanted=1&_r=1
10-15-2011 , 08:22 PM
Quote:
"so far i havent seen anything to convince me that Romney wont send troops to new countries and start new wars"
Last statement of the last debate made it pretty clear that he was a warmongering type. Mighty and strong USA with loads of troops or whatever the exact wording was.
10-15-2011 , 08:26 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by General Tsao
obama is centrist in exactly the wrong way.

so far I haven't seen anything to convince me that Romney will send troops to new countries and start new wars while maintaining 2 old wars.
Foxnews led with a Romney quote that was read to Obama for the first question at the presser with the SK pres.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mitt Romney
"This is America's moment. We should embrace the challenge, not shrink from it, not crawl into an isolationist shell, not wave the white flag of surrender, nor give in to those who assert America's time has passed. That is utter nonsense. An eloquently justified surrender of world leadership is still surrender.

"I will not surrender America's role in the world. This is very simple: If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not your President. You have that President today."
these are the words and sentiment of a leader prepared to escalate
10-15-2011 , 11:16 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by cres
Foxnews led with a Romney quote that was read to Obama for the first question at the presser with the SK pres.
these are the words and sentiment of a leader prepared to escalate
1000x better tho
10-16-2011 , 12:56 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barcalounger
1000x better tho
I'm not sure how that quote could be perceived as anything but 1000x better than Obama.
10-16-2011 , 01:23 AM
Whoa, don't count out Perry yet:

Quote:
Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Texas Governor Rick Perry led the Republican field in fundraising in the third quarter, taking in $17.2 million and entering October with more money in the bank than any of his challengers for his party’s presidential nomination, Federal Election Commission reports show.

Perry reported $15.1 million in cash as of Sept. 30. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who raised $14.2 million from July to September, had $14.7 million in cash. Representative Michele Bachmann, winner of the Iowa straw poll, raised $3.9 million and had $1.3 million in the bank
Quote:
Businessman Herman Cain, who won the Florida straw poll last month, reported raising $2.6 million from July to September, with $1.5 million of that in donations of $200 or less. Cain loaned his campaign another $175,000, bringing his total personal investment to $675,000. Including his second- quarter fundraising, he has brought in $4.7 million for his campaign. He had $1.3 million cash-on-hand.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...andidates.html
10-16-2011 , 01:42 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by General Tsao
lol srsly? romney is about 1000x better than Obama.
•facepalm•
10-16-2011 , 02:38 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnddTHTYT_w

I know Alex Jones is out there, but his Herman Cain post seemed rather interesting. An internal audit for the Fed seems like a joke after listening to this. enjoy, thank me later.
10-16-2011 , 04:16 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by The 13th 4postle
Bookmarked for future reference.
Dont forget the post in the OWS thread where Tsao is disgusted with protesters for not using violence to solve their problems.
10-16-2011 , 04:23 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrWookie
Yeah, read about that the other day. Cain being choked of cash is the biggest obstacle by far for him, he really needs to do one of those tea party things that some Ron Paul guy did in 2007 to raise over a million in a day.

I also wonder how long that cash that Perry and Romney would last for, will that get them through the entire primary process or will they burn a lot of it off from now until Jan when the first primary happens to get that first W? (No way Romney is going to sit out campaigning at any primaries to save money, i just cant see it happening now)
10-16-2011 , 04:56 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by [Phill]
Dont forget the post in the OWS thread where Tsao is disgusted with protesters for not using violence to solve their problems.

At what point would you retaliate? When cops randomly break into your house and start beating you for no reason, would you stand up then?
10-16-2011 , 11:00 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by LirvA
At what point would you retaliate? When cops randomly break into your house and start beating you for no reason, would you stand up then?
Unless you are posting this from a correctional facility, I imagine that you both have similar points at which you retaliate.
10-16-2011 , 11:18 AM
So now we're advocating preemptive attacks on law enforcement ITT? WTF?
10-16-2011 , 11:27 AM
no one is advocating preemptive attacks on cops, but when they are beating people and riding their cars or motorcycles into them they deserve to get ****ed up. i'd love to see these protesters defend themselves.

to quote the john adams show,

"It's one thing to turn the other cheek, but to lie down like a SNAKE and crawl to the seat of power..."
10-16-2011 , 12:12 PM
Lol at the irony of libertarians, whose entire MO is to sit and bitch on the interwebz, lecturing protesters who are actually out there doing something, on the finer points of when to get violent with the cops.

      
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