The whole Vietnam war cost America about $165 Billion.

The invasion of Iraq, cost America roughly $166 billion by March 2 2004 – as per congressional spending.

The invasion was on the March 30 2003.

One year of Iraq cost America more than 10 years of Vietnam.

Actually, (despite an inexplicible dislike of Edwards by lefty blogs, especially Huffpo) ”
I certainly hope the blogosphere gets on-board soon and stops with the misleading headlines toward Edwards.

Well, not all Progressive Blogs. Here is today’s running poll on the 3 leading candidates from the DailyKos site. Edwards has continued to grow in strength over the last few months at Kos. (They do a monthly reader poll.) As indicated, 21834 people have voted up till now, the great majority being Progressive I would guess. Edwards is almost at 50% while Clinton is at 8%.

Poll
Who is currently your favorite 2008 candidate?

Barack Obama
27%
5922 votes

Hillary Clinton
8%
1764 votes

John Edwards
48%
10651 votes

Bill Richardson

21834 votes | Vote

Actually, (despite an inexplicible dislike of Edwards by lefty blogs, especially Huffpo) according to the newest McClatchey poll Edwards beats both Clinton and Obama by 7%. Scroll to the end of page three where the 2nd place votes have been reallocated to those who would make the cut.

“http://www.mcclatchydc.com/static/pdf/poll/1230iowadem.pdf”

I certainly hope the blogosphere gets on-board soon and stops with the misleading headlines toward Edwards.

BTW — Bush’s Iraq War makes Vietnam look like a Sunday School picnic.

As I mentioned, there really was no discussion or debate on either of the 2 threads. It was an “I’m better ‘n you” performance by BB, masquerading as debate. Hundreds and hundreds of useless posts signifying nothing. On the other side, a lot of interesting comments were made. Having said this I expect I will lose my favored “clown” title for something more vivid.

Personally, falling into the Secular Humanist camp I never get involved in discussions involving religion, belief or faith of any kind. There is simply no point in my view.

No but Bartlebee was basing his argument on one turn of phrase not the intent behind the statement.

Have you been talking to Bartlebee?

LOL

Actually, the one comment I made on the second Huckabee thread yesterday didn’t sit well with him. So now I am a “clown.”

Comment by Merlin — January 2, 2008 @ 6:25 pm

Have you been talking to Bartlebee?

Anything other than an unequivocal statement of intent to leave “now” indicates the desire to stay, in my book.

Comment by Wilco — January 2, 2008 @ 4:50 pm

Yep — and I still miss her. I would love to know what she’d have to say about the current crop of POTUS candidates — both Dem and GOP.

How exactly would a Democratic president start withdrawing troops before he was inaugurated? Do you think if Edwards wins the Iowa caucus he can start withdrawing troops tomorrow. If you want things to move faster then you need to contact the president and the Republicans in congress and go to a right wing site and tell them you want action now.

Certainly Edwards is the most likely to beat any Republican candidate. Clinton and Obama are still going to scare off al Cracker indpendents in Red States and send them over to the Republican side. The MSM and coporate America know that and thats why they want Hillary or Obama as the candidate.

Well said Shayne! I agree.

They did say that they couldn’t rule out having some soldiers in Iraq in 2013 left behind to protect “American interests”. That’s what got me. What “interests” do we have in Iraq? It’s their country for gods sake and we have no interest to anything in their country. It’s their oil, it’s their land, it’s their people. We need to get the hell out and let them control their own country. I don’t care if we think they can’t do it, that is not our decision to make. We need to stop meddling in other people’s affairs NOW!

Spot on Bilbo!

Edwards initially said that even at the end of his term, if he were elected, that there would still be some American troops in Iraq. Now he says that, as good golly @ 109 has pointed out, it would be a 10 month withdrawal from Jan. 2009. Is this the real John Edwards or is this the John Edwards who is talking troop withdrawal for the sake of political expediency?

You believe that ten months is a reasonable time frame to get those troops back to this country. But you are including equipment. Getting those troops out of that hellhole should be the first priority and it would certainly not take almost a year to fly them, along with contractors, back to the U.S. What is more important, machinery or men [and women]? I also do not believe it is a feasible argument when liberals as well as neoconservatives claim that it would be extremely chaotic to withdraw those troops from that slaughterhouse. As independent journalist Nir Rosen observed, if the U.S. military were to finally leave Iraq, the resistance would have nothing to resist against.

As good golly has noted, for Edwards to advocate that the troops be withdrawn in Jan. 2009 would be a wait of 22 months. 22 months is an extremely long time for a soldier to wait before he or she is finally removed from that hellhole. The time to begin getting them out is NOW, not almost two years from now. As a former Vietnam veteran, I must say that with friends like the Democrats, the troops are certainly not in need of looking for enemies.

Comment by Fred — January 2, 2008 @ 4:42 pm

You have a point in that discussion was starting to veer off-topic, for which I claim partial responsibility.

I responded to a post of good_golly’s, calling him on using a tired neocon cliche, and asked him to elaborate. He and I tend to tweak each other a fair amount, anyway, since our political viewpoints are often diametric opposites (although we’ve been known to agree on a few things).

When he talked about how issuing a withdrawal timetable would embolden the enemy, I asked him to detail who our “enemy” is. And he did. Whereas I then responded to that post, piece by piece. And that’s where you came in.

Good_golly is actually a decent opponent. While some of his statements are outrageous, he has never resorted to ad hominem attacks (at least, not with me) and he’s never reduced himself to calling me names.

That said — I apologize for the space I have taken up in this thread talking about who we’re fighting, although I don’t think it’s COMPLETELY off-topic. I think who we’re fighting and why are valid factors in any discussion of troop withdrawal.

Comment by Fred — January 2, 2008 @ 4:30 pm

I’d highly recommend you reconsider this course of action. Missmolly is consistently one of the most insightful, knowledgeable, and level-headed posters on this site. Her opinions are well worth listening to.

We get it, you’re afraid of Edwards.