Bush is our Brezhnev

My comment made it onto Captainsquarters. User docjim replied:

I don't recall ever making the "died in vain argument" myself, and I don't recall reading anybody else who has.

I'm for staying and WINNING because (A) I think we are winning; (B) I think we can win; and (C) the price of losing is too high.

Now, what IS the price of losing?

1. Demonstrating to all the world that the United States can be "beaten" by killing a relative handful of our men.

2. Demonstrating to all the world that terrorism is a viable tactic to combat the United States and influence American policy.

3. Demonstrating to all the world - again - that we will abandon our allies if the going gets even a little tough for us.

4. Demonstrating to all the world that we really DON'T believe in democracy; it's only for the "right" people, which is to say "white, Christian or Jewish people".

5. Risking Iraq turning into The Killing Fields v2.0 and / or Afghanistan v2.0.

6. Demonstrating to our military that we really do think they are expendable: we'll ask them to go fight and die, but not let them finish the job. (cf. morale in the armed forces after Vietnam)

I replied:

At a press conference in May, 2007, George Bush answered a question from someone whose cousin died in Iraq with, "Secondly, one way to make sure that your second cousin didn't die in vain is to remind legislators that regardless of their position on the war, that they have got to fund our troops, ... without conditions ... that say you've got to withdraw by a certain date."

As for your points, 1. has already been demonstrated in Beirut in 1983 (Reagan's legacy), 2. is nonsense since Saddam Hussein was not supporting terrorism against USA, 3. is backwards, its our allies abandoning us cause we are screwing up big time, 4. is like, 'duh'; if we believe in democracy, why pick 2nd place vote getter president, why support Musharref, et. al. 5. Iraq has already been turned into killing fields, read the Lancet article by Burnham et. al., 6. Walter Reed. Why is Ron Paul the number one recepient of donations by active duty military?

The price of staying is that the rest of the world is going to get sick of putting up with our shit, and they will continue to dump the dollar and pump the euro until we have a third world economy that is not capable of supporting our oversized military. Bush is our Brezhnev, Obama will be our Gorbachev, and who knows who will be our Yeltsin.