Iraq from an insurgent sniper's POV...
 

http://tinyurl.com/y3wsam (If you can't view it, try opening a new window from that window that pops up. Otherwise you may have an overzealous firewall).

I have to say, this is quite disturbing, and for me, it doesn't really help move me to their cause at all. These guys are deliberately targeting US soldiers, and expect the US to just give up and let them do whatever. And at the same time they praise Allah.

Not that I'm trying to say "OMG Islam is teh Suq!", just that doing this only strengthens the resolve of staying in Iraq. I'd say if they wanted US troops out, they should just stop doing this stuff until the US pulls out (and hopefully we don't have to say there long), then they can turn their country into glass for all I care.

Do you think the insurgents targeting soldiers like this is helping or weakening their cause? There's always at least two sides to an argument, and I'd like to see what you think regarding it. Obviously the insurgents think that this will get the US to leave quicker, cause you know, Clinton pulled out of Somalia shortly after those soldiers were killed, and then the US pulled out of Beirut shortly after the Marine barracks got bombed. And you all know what happened to the Russians in Afghanistan, the US gave those "freedom fighters" stuff (like Stinger missiles) to ensure the Soviet Union had its "Vietnam" (not officially, but off the record I'm sure that's the main reason why the US did it), and now why all that stuff is also going on in Chechnya (cause again, the extremists figure 'well, it worked in Afghanistan, why not here?').

I can't wait till we find a cheap alternative to oil, so that the Middle East will once again have nothing we need (during the medieval era, it was the Crusades/Holy Land stuff, then Europeans discovered the New World, and decided to exploit that area instead. Then the Ottoman Empire fell apart, cause they couldn't/didn't want to catch up to those sea-based empires and slowly decayed away, and then sided with the wrong guys during WW1. Isn't learning history fun :rock:). Then they can do whatever they want to themselves, while the rest of the world moves on without them.

It's helping their cause because military deaths and the subsequent media coverage of them turns the public against any war. If World War I or II was covered like Iraq and Vietnam, we wouldn't have been able to stay the course in those conflicts as well.

There were huge demonstrations all over the developed world upon the US government's announcement of an invasion.

I wasnt a supporter of US going to Iraq, but now that they're in, I'm a supporter of them staying. Leaving now would turn Iraq into one more extremist Islamic nation, and we don't really need that nowadays ...

Sadly, I just don't see how it can get better. First, because of the horrible situation over there of course, but also because of the pussy populations who want their "clean war" utopia.

At this point we might as well just create a sovereign Kurdistan and leave the Sunnis and Shias to their own devices.

Which is not going to do anything to make the Turks any happier about the situation.

I agree. Now that the U.S. has entered into this thing, they must make sure it is stable when they leave. At the same time, the costs will be large. When you invade countries, it takes a lot of resources to starighten things out. This is why countries generally do not support the invasion of countries. It just costs wayyy too much these days, and the rewards are very little to none at all.

Nations used to go to war because there was a large benefit for them in the end, such as money, resources, population, etc., Nowadays, it political, and sometimes arrogance.

I agree with Night Phoenix on this one. The media coverage of the war, especially when the military is negatively portrayed, is yielding unrest concerning the war, throughout the world.

Double Post:
The quesiton is: How long will it take to create stability, furthermore, what kinds of changes will we have to make concerning policy and strategy to affect stability?