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Northwest · M
Congratulations, you seem to be immune to KoolAid.
In reality:
The US Embassy in Iraq, is our largest, and most expensive, embassy in the world, and was built from the ground up, to be a self-sufficient armed fortress, and to withstand large scale attacks. It is the centerpiece of the secure "Green Zone", built following our invasion of Iraq, in anticipation of having Iraq as our permanent base, to spread "democracy", AKA blood for oil.
In addition to the small army, already at the Embassy, a force of 100 Marines was sent out of one of our bases in Kuwait. It's a rapid response force, set up following the Iraq invasion. They are essentially on constant alert, ready to board their V-22 Offsprey, on a very short notice, and head out, if it's within a reasonable distance. That would be about 500 miles, in this case. The Offsprey's top speed is about 300MPH (for the improved version), so when you add that up, it's more like 4-6 hours, but my math is probably wrong, because, you know, Trump never lies.
As to the 750 Paratroopers? Your propaganda machine failed to explain the difference between "will deploy" / "deploying", and already deployed. The latter is the magic term. Orders were given to send an extra 750 soldiers, to an embassy, that's prepared to accept more, but the actual arrival, well, has not arrived.
But, when did facts matter to you?
In reality:
The US Embassy in Iraq, is our largest, and most expensive, embassy in the world, and was built from the ground up, to be a self-sufficient armed fortress, and to withstand large scale attacks. It is the centerpiece of the secure "Green Zone", built following our invasion of Iraq, in anticipation of having Iraq as our permanent base, to spread "democracy", AKA blood for oil.
In addition to the small army, already at the Embassy, a force of 100 Marines was sent out of one of our bases in Kuwait. It's a rapid response force, set up following the Iraq invasion. They are essentially on constant alert, ready to board their V-22 Offsprey, on a very short notice, and head out, if it's within a reasonable distance. That would be about 500 miles, in this case. The Offsprey's top speed is about 300MPH (for the improved version), so when you add that up, it's more like 4-6 hours, but my math is probably wrong, because, you know, Trump never lies.
As to the 750 Paratroopers? Your propaganda machine failed to explain the difference between "will deploy" / "deploying", and already deployed. The latter is the magic term. Orders were given to send an extra 750 soldiers, to an embassy, that's prepared to accept more, but the actual arrival, well, has not arrived.
But, when did facts matter to you?
Northwest · M
@LeopoldBloom They kind of forced their way in, but yes, the guards could have called in for backup. To be fair though, given that we invaded Iraq, partially for their involvement in 9/11, and it turns out they were not involved, they get a pass this time around.
LeopoldBloom · M
@Northwest To be fair, the Bush admin. never said Saddam was responsible for 9/11, but they didn't contradict the idiotic conspiracy theories that popped up claiming he was. The conventional wisdom was that W wanted to finish what his father started (and to give the right people an opportunity to make money), and got plenty of support from conservatives who worshipped him as fervently as they worship Trump today. Nobody remembers that now with the Bush family having fallen out of favor.
Northwest · M
@LeopoldBloom I really don't think 43rd was an evil person. I think he's not a very smart guy, who was misled by "God" and his entourage, into doing what he thought was the right an honorable thing.
I voted for his, for his first term, but that was primarily because I was so fucking disgusted with Babba Clinton, and Al Gore, plus I thought that he's not bright enough to do really stupid stuff. I was sadly wrong.
43rd really believed he was on a mission from God, to free the Iraqi people, and his entourage brought corrupt Iraqis in, to convince him that Americans would be received as liberators. I was at the Syrian Vice President house for dinner, about the time we were getting ready to invade, and he shared that the Syrians advised the US that an invasion would be a huge mistake, and while we can easily win the war, we will unleash the evil of extreme Islamism in the process.
43rd, and the neocons around him, had no fucking clue what the Middle East was about, and the current crew is even worse.
I voted for his, for his first term, but that was primarily because I was so fucking disgusted with Babba Clinton, and Al Gore, plus I thought that he's not bright enough to do really stupid stuff. I was sadly wrong.
43rd really believed he was on a mission from God, to free the Iraqi people, and his entourage brought corrupt Iraqis in, to convince him that Americans would be received as liberators. I was at the Syrian Vice President house for dinner, about the time we were getting ready to invade, and he shared that the Syrians advised the US that an invasion would be a huge mistake, and while we can easily win the war, we will unleash the evil of extreme Islamism in the process.
43rd, and the neocons around him, had no fucking clue what the Middle East was about, and the current crew is even worse.
LeopoldBloom · M
@Northwest W should have done what his predecessors did in similar situations - get rid of Saddam and his immediate entourage, install a pro-American puppet, and get the hell out. Instead, they acted like the Ba'ath Party was the modern-day version of the Nazis, where every government official down to the equivalent of GS-12 had to be purged and replaced. As it turns out, we would have needed around 100x more troops to pull that off. So the country descended into chaos, and ISIS filled the vacuum.
I agree that the current administration is even stupider. A war with Iran is unwinnable.
I agree that the current administration is even stupider. A war with Iran is unwinnable.
Northwest · M
@LeopoldBloom We did not do that with the Nazi party. One of the reasons the transition to peace, and prosperity, happened so fast, in Europe and Japan, is that we only went after the top brass, and kept middle management in place. In Iraq, we insisted on a total overhaul. This led to the insurgency.
LeopoldBloom · M
@Northwest I wasn't aware of that. I thought the "de-Nazification" involved replacing anyone with even a remote connection to the power structure. In light of that, "de-Ba'athification" was an even dumber strategy.