Let's not call it the Iraq war anymore, it's mis-leading.

[Robin Hood]

This was never really a war but rather an invasion and now a sloppy occupation. The strongest nation on earth against one of the weakest nations on Earth does not a war make. This is a occupation by an invading, opportunistic army/nation.

[Superfly]

1. You can call it whatever the hell you want

from the comfort of your home, eating popcorn, feet propped up, waxing political on what "we" should call what's going on over in Iraq.

Meanwhile, for the US and UK soldiers over there and the people of Iraq, this is a honest-to-goodness, it's the real thing baby, WAR.

[Robin Hood]

2. Going to war against China would be a war.

This is a occupation. I'm not calling it what I want, I'm calling it what it is.

[Superfly]

3. Fuck it....not worth it

this discussion makes me sick.

[Robin Hood]

5. That's fine,

Your post makes me sick.

[Superfly]

9. You know what I find funny...

you sit there, snug as a bug, making proclamations on what we should call what's going on over in Iraq in an attempt to marginalize what has happened.

Meanwhile, there are people over there, Iraqis, US, Brits, who are scared shitless because people are shooting at them and blowing shit up.

Oh, but they should feel better that this "isn't a war"....it's an occupation! Look Mom, I'm heading off to an occupation! I'll be back before lunch!

Fucking sick.

[Robin Hood]

11. I don't find none of this shit funny.

And I didn't want this fucking invasion/occupation in the first place. It's people like me that actually give a damn about our people over there, I didn't want to send them there in the first place.

I'm just tired of calling it a war and feeding into this nationalistic Bush campaign commercial. I have no doubt or delusion that shit on the ground in Baghdad is just brutal hell. But it's still not a war, it is an occupation and that's the reason why our boys/girls are getting killed and maimed.

I just don't think that the term "war" ever applied to the invasion of Iraq, The term only served to bolster Bush's campaign coffers and photo ops.

[Djinn]

12. just because

the soldiers are getting blown up and shot at doesn't make it a war, although I don't particularly think it matters what it's called I understand why some people might be reluctant to use the term war as it makes it sound like an even fight which it wasn't by a long shot. It has nothing to do with denigrating what the soldiers are going through (or the Iraqi citizens who are usually ignored)

[Selwynn]

20. Superfly, calling it "war" IS marginalizing what has happened!

No one is trying to "marginalize" what has happened. Calling it a "war" implies "just war." It gives it legitimacy which it does not have. This was and is a tragic, brutal, illegal invasion and occupation that has cost countless lives - needlessly.

Calling it a "war" marginalizes what has happen and, in my opinion, disgraces the memory of those who died needlessly.

Also, may I ask - where are you currently sitting? Are you on active duty in Iraq right now? If not, then please stop berating others for "sitting sung as a bug" at home, especially if you are doing the same. And if you are currently deployed on active duty in this unjust invasion and illegal occupation, then my prayers are with you.

Noone here is failing to take anything seriously - in fact it is the act of taking it painfully seriously that causes many of us to not want to be careless about what we call what is really going on in Iraq.

So knock it off, will ya?

[musiclawyer]

6. I agree with the post

I wrote to the Dean Camp about this some time ago and they ignored me. It is a war to the soldiers on the ground, and technically it might have been a war as an "open and hostile armed conflict." But the UN's and most people's connotation of war reflects justified armed conflict where the outcome can always hang in the balance. That was not the case. It really was an invasion that invited war.

[Toots]

13. I say BS

It ain't no war. Hell five hundred people in 10 months get killed in New York. It is definitely an unpleasantness and maybe a police action but a long long ways from a war. Wars are about Armies fighting each other and Navies sinking ships and blockading harbors and fighters shooting down bombers and constant artillery fire and the daily yells of "incoming". Not about a few GIs getting killed occasionally by civilian suicide bombers. Sorry but the police in LA see more action than most GIs in Iraq.

[Superfly]

14. Once again the entire population of Iraq is forgotten

There's always 2 sides to a fight...

How many thousands of them have died in this place that you say is comparable to the danger levels of LA?

This is a war. People are fighting for their lives over there.

[RebelOne]

4. Yes, I have never classified it as a war. It was an invasion

against a country that had no defense against us.

[Robin Hood]

7. They trumped this as a war.

To sell the invasion. because for some reason Americans seem to get a hard on at the thought of war.

[LostInTheMaise]

18. You're not an American?

What are you?

[Robin Hood]

19. I am American

I just don't get a hard on when America goes to war.

[Virgil]

16. It was an invasion. No it is an occupation.

I agree that it was no war. We took 12 years while we starved them and had weapons inspectors make sure they were disarmed. Once they knew they were disarmed the surrounded them and pulled the inspectors out. We invaded. Now we occupy.

Yes. There is violence and death. But it was a billion dollar a day offense against a billion a year defense. Iraq was defanged and and turned inte third-world sucked-dry-by-reparations economy. The CIA should have checked Saddams references when they hired him. They should not have given him tenure on top of that.

Bu$h is a war criminal. Send him over there an make him breath the depleted uranium in the air. Send him some Iraqi bottled water.

[Robin Hood]

17. I could not have said it any better Virgil.

Iraq was a defenseless sitting duck. It is shameful what we have done to it's people.

[TahitiNut]

8. Iraq: Where 'War' begins with a Dubya.

:shrug:

[salinen]

10. "Operation Control our new Country"

[GreyV]

15. War?

How about "Campaign of Mass Murder"? I think that's more accurate.