TYT: The Two Central Myths of the Iraq War

[ihavenobias]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/the-two-central-myths-of_b_96038.html#postComment

The Two Central Myths of the Iraq War
By Cenk Uygur

Yesterday on our show I talked about the two central myths of the Iraq War:

1. There is no central government of Iraq who can take over as soon as we leave and run a peaceful, stable and flourishing Iraq.

2. More time in Iraq is not going to produce any more gains for us because we're headed in the wrong direction. More time might help if you're headed in the right direction, but only hurts your cause if you're going the wrong way.

Normally, I would write about this, but I think I explained it best yesterday on the show. Think about the business analogy at the end of this video -- under any other circumstance, we would never give more time and money for a failing enterprise like this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=116919&mesg_id=116919

And on top of this, of course there is the Petraeus Paradox http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2008/04/09/the-petraeus-paradox-why-we-can-never-leave-iraq/ -- if we're doing well in Iraq, that shows the extra troops helped so we have to stay; if we're doing poorly that shows we need more troops and have to stay longer. Hence, according to Petraeus logic, we can never leave Iraq.

PS---You can always watch TYT Live from 3-5 pm ET, with a Rolling Post Game 5-7 pm daily Monday-Friday at www.theyoungturks.com (both shows include a live chat). The RPG often contains political talk but also many non-political topics to lighten things up (and yes, that audio may not necessarily be work-safe).

Also, if you can't watch live, the 3-5pm portion of the show (politics) streams the rest of the day, all day right after the Post Game Show ends leading up to the initial show at 3pm.

[elocs]

1. U.S. troops secure a city or area and the insurgents melt away.

Then, when the troops leave, the insurgents return. This is a mirror of what will happen with the country as a whole. Whether we are there for another 5 or 10 or 50 years, as soon as we leave, things will fall apart. Iraqis are already dying and shedding their blood for no good purpose. The sad truth is that they will have to sort out their own future, shedding their own blood for their own nation or nations.

Imagine what it would have been like in our own civil war if the British had been able to occupy the U.S. in order to save us from ourselves. The British would have been resented and hated and in the end we would have to sort things out on our own for good or for worse if we wanted a country that was truly ours and not imposed by a foreign nation.

[ihavenobias]

4. Yep n/t

[OhioChick]

2. Thanks for Posting.

K&R
:kick:

[navarth]

3. bump

[CherylK]

5. Bump!

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. Uygur's "Patreus Paradox"

That pretty much sums it up for me.