How do we define defeat or failure in Iraq.

Question

I keep hearing people say that Iraq is a failure but how do we define failure?

Answer 1

failure as in we never found any weapons of mass destruction. etc etc etc. we killed more than we helped

Answer 2

Boogie,

What you've just described is exactly what we found there under Saddam Hussein.

Nazgul,

And what exactly do you think of the 500 tons of yellow cake we just shipped to Canada from Iraq?

Answer 3

Politicians have set the goals in Iraq. They have given them to the military. I'm not certain precisely what they are... it depends upon which politician you listen to.

Failure is not meeting those goals.

Defeat is when the enemy can, in any way, make the outcome seem to be a victory after we leave. If there are any of them left standing after we leave who haven't surrendered before we leave, they will claim a victory. They will claim to have "driven the infidels from our sacred land." We'll deny it. They'll say, "We are here. You aren't. What more proof do you need?"

ADDENDUM:

Just occurred to me.  Since the politicians can't agree on the goals, perhaps you can look at anything we do over there as a success... on the other hand, you can look at whatever we accomplish over there as a failure. See how helpful politics is?

"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." (George Orwell)

Answer 4

well the government over there is in ruins, there are bombings from aggresive terrorists most likely shai trying to cause trouble, thosauds of cilivans and soldiers dead, economy is going down by the minute, oil is raising at record times, and that whole country is in a shithole.

thats sounds like a failure to me.

Opteke-

then we did a fab job, didn't we?

Answer 5

Can't because we are achieving our goals, and Life for the Average Iraqi citizen has Improved.

Vet-USAF

@dded: Yellow cake is basically harmless until refined, Israel destroyed Iraq's ability to refine it. I missed doing the hauling job by two weeks.

Answer 6

Beats me.  how do we define victory?  When we leave and those crazy b******s start killing each other off again, what have we accomplished?