# What should the USA do in Iraq? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 17, 2014, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971 "2014-06-17T07:00:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/141 "2014-06-23T02:14:05Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > So that one vague sentence at the end of a transcript trumps what Kurdish leaders have been saying all week. Ok. Here is more: > [@](#): > > The current chaos also offers an upside: Kurds are moving to consolidate and expand their semi-autonomous homeland. At the same time, they must fend off ISIS, the militant face of a spiraling Sunni rebellion against Baghdad that also threatens Iraqi Kurds’ hard-won stability and order. > **[Facing ISIS threat, Kurdish fighters favor US air power](https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2014/0619/Facing-ISIS-threat-Kurdish-fighters-favor-US-air-power)** > > Kurds have carved out a semi-autonomous homeland in northern Iraq that's now threatened by Sunni militants. Kurdish officials say they can help US warplanes spot targets. I guess what you have failed to realize is that Kurds can fight for every inch of Kurdush land agsinst ISIS but they can help to defend Baghdad from ISIS too. Chew Gum and Talk at the same time. Great line in the report: (At the same time, **they must fend off ISIS,** the militant face of a spiraling Sunni rebellion against Baghdad that also threatens Iraqi Kurds’ hard-won stability and order.) > [@](#): > > Mr. Bahjay says the onslaught came as no surprise and that Kurdish intelligence repeatedly warned its partners in Baghdad and the West. > > “We expected the situation to worsen but for it to happen at such speed came as a surprise,” he says. “We’ve been shouting for years: the situation is not good; ISIS needs to get hit [and] what is happening in Syria will ultimately affect the whole world.” ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/142 "2014-06-23T02:26:11Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > So that one vague sentence at the end of a transcript trumps what Kurdish leaders have been saying all week. Ok. One more excerpt from the CSM link: > [@](#): > > One of the peshmerga’s main command nodes now lies in Khanaqin, a Kurdish city in the Arab majority Diyala province, which borders Iran. Security is tight. Sunni Arab villagers have been known to fire at passing peshmerga forces. > > Until last week, this was under the control of Iraq’s army. After the fall of Mosul and the retreat of Baghdad’s military forces, \*\*a US-trained peshmerga counterterrorism unit from Suleimaniya deployed here. \*\* > > In the shade of a dilapidated terracotta building, commanders and troops regroup after pitched battles with ISIS forces in adjacent Arab villages like Jalawla, which has long been a stronghold of Baathist and al Qaeda sympathizers and is now under ISIS control as it pushes south towards Baghdad. > > … > > “We are in it 100 percent but wars are not fought without ammunition,” says Polat Talabani, the **commander of the counterterrorism unit with 160 commandos who received US Delta Force training in 2003**. > **[Facing ISIS threat, Kurdish fighters favor US air power](https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2014/0619/Facing-ISIS-threat-Kurdish-fighters-favor-US-air-power)** > > Kurds have carved out a semi-autonomous homeland in northern Iraq that's now threatened by Sunni militants. Kurdish officials say they can help US warplanes spot targets. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/143 "2014-06-23T02:35:40Z")
> [@DingoelGringo](#): > > How extremely stupid can one get. All the reasons for ruining their country are still valid? Huh? None of the warmonger’s excuses were ever valid at all. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and THe presidunce knew it all along. SO what excuses for destroying their country are still valid? Tell us. Bush and Cheney never could, though they tried a dozen different lies. You should seriously wipe the foam from your muzzle and go back and re-read what I actually wrote there for clarity…as opposed to simply flying off the handle after reading a word or two. I never said that the invasion was justified in any way, nor that destroying the country was a good idea. I’m not attempting to defend Bush/Chaney et al, and think that the invasion was stupid. That doesn’t detract from the FACT that Iraq is important to pretty much the entire industrialized world, or that securing the oil (reserves and production) isn’t important, since it obviously is. Which is why the US can’t just look the other way, as we could with any country where there wasn’t crucial strategic resources…and, frankly, no one else is going to just stand by and watch it burn either. I don’t know what the US should do, or even what we can do, but we aren’t going to do nothing, and neither will anyone else if looks like the oil will be seriously threatened. ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/144 "2014-06-23T02:40:30Z")
The John Mace assessment: > [@John\_Mace](#): > > As for ISIL, they unfortunately not the real problem Rooz Bahjay’s assessment: > [@](#): > > A sweeping offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has shaken Iraq to the core. Kurdish officials say they saw it coming and tried to warn Western intelligence agencies about the jihadi threat emerging from Syria’s civil war, where ISIS and other Sunni militant groups found fertile ground to expand. > > Now they want to see the US military launch air strikes on ISIS forces – and are prepared to provide intelligence on targets. > > “We know the locations of these fighters. We know their headquarters with their bombs and their missiles. It would be nice to have (international) troops but if not we would appreciate something from the air,” Rooz Bahjay, a senior security official of the Kurdish Regional Government, told journalists here. Rooz Bahjay who is a senior security official of the Kurdish Regional Government would like something dropped from the air onto ISIS positions and HQ’s. I think he means we need to kill them now if not sooner. I’m pretty sure John Mace is wrong. seriously wrong. ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/145 "2014-06-23T02:49:04Z")
> [@XT](#): > > You should seriously wipe the foam from your muzzle and go back and re-read what I actually wrote there for clarity…as opposed to simply flying off the handle after reading a word or two. I never said that the invasion was justified in any way, nor that destroying the country was a good idea. I’m not attempting to defend Bush/Chaney et al, and think that the invasion was stupid. That doesn’t detract from the FACT that Iraq is important to pretty much the entire industrialized world, or that securing the oil (reserves and production) isn’t important, since it obviously is. Which is why the US can’t just look the other way, as we could with any country where there wasn’t crucial strategic resources…and, frankly, no one else is going to just stand by and watch it burn either. I don’t know what the US should do, or even what we can do, but we aren’t going to do nothing, and neither will anyone else if looks like the oil will be seriously threatened. You the same issues regarding oil exist today existed back in 2003. You said same issues that drove us to war. Nothing drove us to war. It was a bad decision that Bush made to cease the UN inspections. There was no threat to oil with inspectors on the ground. The oil was fine until the US invaded. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/146 "2014-06-23T02:51:29Z")
> [@NotfooledbyW](#): > > The John Mace assessment: > > Rooz Bahjay’s assessment: > > Rooz Bahjay who is a senior security official of the Kurdish Regional Government would like something dropped from the air onto ISIS positions and HQ’s. I think he means we need to kill them now if not sooner. > > I’m pretty sure John Mace is wrong. seriously wrong. Haven’t really been following the thread, but I see you are up to your old tricks. Here is the complete quote from John Mace, to put it into context (which you interestingly decided not to do and instead flew off on yet another of your tangents with a side of dishonest strategic misquotation and redirected implication): > [@](#): > > As for ISIL, they unfortunately not the real problem. \*\*They are more of a symptom of the problem. Get rid of ISIS, and you still have Maliki and the disaffected Sunni Arabs going at each other with the Kurds happily cutting back-room deals with other countries to sell oil independent of what Baghdad wants. \*\* My emphasis. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/147 "2014-06-23T02:57:26Z")
[QUOTE=NotfooledbyW] You the same issues regarding oil exist today existed back in 2003. You said same issues that drove us to war. [/QUOTE] No…the same issues made us strategically interested in the region and the security of the resource. I’m fairly certain that it WAS the primary reason Bush et al decided to pull the trigger on the war because of the window of opportunity they saw, with WMD as the excuse. > [@](#): > > Nothing drove us to war. It was a bad decision that Bush made to cease the UN inspections. There was no threat to oil with inspectors on the ground. The oil was fine until the US invaded. It wasn’t secure in the minds of Bush and his merry minions because Saddam was a loose cannon. So, they foolishly decided to take the opportunity they had to attempt regime change, with the intent to put a more stable (and US friendly) government in power. But it was always all about the oil. We’ve argued about this in thread after thread though, so what’s the point in continuing? THIS thread is about what the US should do TODAY in Iraq. The past has already happened now, and hopefully you’ve now skipped ahead to the end chapters in the war by this point and know how it all turned out (like shit), so let’s stick to debating what we should do at this point. As I’ve said, I have no idea, just that basically doing nothing isn’t going to be a viable option. You can pretty much see that the US is already positioning itself, despite years of meat grinder and cluster fuck, to do something in Iraq. All I can say is I’m fucking glad I’m not in Obama’s shoes. ---
**Author:** ![Jay4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f1d935/32.png) [@Jay4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay4)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/148 "2014-06-23T03:27:18Z")
> [@XT](#): > > THIS thread is about what the US should do TODAY in Iraq… america cant even fix their own country so why bother trying to fix others ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/149 "2014-06-23T03:44:59Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Haven’t really been following the thread, but I see you are up to your old tricks. Here is the complete quote from John Mace, to put it into context (which you interestingly decided not to do and instead flew off on yet another of your tangents with a side of dishonest strategic misquotation and redirected implication): > > My emphasis. Oh, he’s up to more than that trick. He just dug for some random cite and doesn’t even realize that the quote is completely tangential to the discussion. And all they need is air strikes form the US? I doubt Obama is going to go there. We are not going to be the Shiite Air Force. ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/150 "2014-06-23T07:59:28Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Haven’t really been following the thread, but I see you are up to your old tricks. Here is the complete quote from John Mace, to put it into context (which you interestingly decided not to do and instead flew off on yet another of your tangents with a side of dishonest strategic misquotation and redirected implication): > > My emphasis. You are right you have not been following at all. That is easy to see. ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/151 "2014-06-23T08:07:27Z")
> [@XT](#): > > No…the same issues made us strategically interested in the region and the security of the resource. I’m fairly certain that it WAS the primary reason Bush et al decided to pull the trigger on the war because of the window of opportunity they saw, with WMD as the excuse. > > It wasn’t secure in the minds of Bush and his merry minions because Saddam was a loose cannon. So, they foolishly decided to take the opportunity they had to attempt regime change, with the intent to put a more stable (and US friendly) government in power. But it was always all about the oil. > > We’ve argued about this in thread after thread though, so what’s the point in continuing? THIS thread is about what the US should do TODAY in Iraq. The past has already happened now, and hopefully you’ve now skipped ahead to the end chapters in the war by this point and know how it all turned out (like shit), so let’s stick to debating what we should do at this point. > > As I’ve said, I have no idea, just that basically doing nothing isn’t going to be a viable option. You can pretty much see that the US is already positioning itself, despite years of meat grinder and cluster fuck, to do something in Iraq. All I can say is I’m fucking glad I’m not in Obama’s shoes. If it was purely ‘in the mind’ of Bush ‘we’ were not driven to invade as I said. He was not ‘driven’ to invade by some outside reality. That is the point about inspectors being in there. That is a reality that all of us including you could see. Bush does not get to be attack a nation because he had his own reality dancing around in his head. Your choice of words indicates a lot. ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/152 "2014-06-23T08:17:18Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Oh, he’s up to more than that trick. He just dug for some random cite and doesn’t even realize that the quote is completely tangential to the discussion. And all they need is air strikes form the US? I doubt Obama is going to go there. We are not going to be the Shiite Air Force. Read it. They are fighting with ammunition because they fear they will be running out in two weeks. They are specifically defending Baghdad from ISiS. That means you have been entirely wrong. And Obama has not ruled out airstrikes. The Peshmerga sent to help defend Baghdad were trained by Delta Force. Get it? ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/153 "2014-06-23T08:23:45Z")
> [@XT](#): > > No…the same issues made us strategically interested in the region and the security of the resource. I’m fairly certain that it WAS the primary reason Bush et al decided to pull the trigger on the war because of the window of opportunity they saw, with WMD as the excuse. > > It wasn’t secure in the minds of Bush and his merry minions because Saddam was a loose cannon. So, they foolishly decided to take the opportunity they had to attempt regime change, with the intent to put a more stable (and US friendly) government in power. But it was always all about the oil. > > We’ve argued about this in thread after thread though, so what’s the point in continuing? THIS thread is about what the US should do TODAY in Iraq. The past has already happened now, and hopefully you’ve now skipped ahead to the end chapters in the war by this point and know how it all turned out (like shit), so let’s stick to debating what we should do at this point. > > As I’ve said, I have no idea, just that basically doing nothing isn’t going to be a viable option. You can pretty much see that the US is already positioning itself, despite years of meat grinder and cluster fuck, to do something in Iraq. All I can say is I’m fucking glad I’m not in Obama’s shoes. No. Being strategically interested is not ‘us’ being driven to war. I am strategically interested now and was then too. But I was not driven to war because even I could see the reality of what was happeing at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/154 "2014-06-23T12:07:23Z")
> [@NotfooledbyW](#): > > You’ll have to dig it out of the news rooms because as Human Action say Americans don’t pay attention to solutions. Please don’t misquote me to make your nonsensical points. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/155 "2014-06-23T12:35:24Z")
> [@NotfooledbyW](#): > > Here is more: That’s not more. That’s Kurds defending Kurdistan > [@](#): > > I guess what you have failed to realize is that Kurds can fight for every inch of Kurdush land agsinst ISIS but they can help to defend Baghdad from ISIS too. Chew Gum and Talk at the same time. I don’t fail to realize that at all. I am saying that it’s not happening. 100 commandos, if I buy this line, is jackshit. More of a training exercise than joining the battle. The fact that’s all you can find should tell you something. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/156 "2014-06-23T15:40:39Z")
Bottom line is that Iraq is putting out 3 million barrels a day and has the potential to produce more than that. If ISIS succeeds in capturing Baghdad, would that cut off the flow of oil? If that happened we’d see serious problems- 3 million barrels a day didn’t come off the market in 2008 when prices went above $140/barrel. We’d probably see a bigger spike than that, which would probably spark another round of recession or worse. That would mean the conflict in Iraq is interfering with our interests, along with most other countries’. I don’t know at what point this conflict shuts off the flow of oil from Iraq. My guess is that, unless this outcome is judged to be inevitable, the US will start blowing shit up before things get to that point. Should we? I dunno, but I think that is how it will shake out. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/157 "2014-06-23T15:57:20Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > If ISIS succeeds in capturing Baghdad, would that cut off the flow of oil? No. Both the Kurds and the Shi’ites would keep on pumping oil. And even _if_ ISIS somehow managed to take over the entire country (not gonna happen), one imagines that the oil would keep on flowing nevertheless - after all, what would ISIS have to gain in cutting off the flow? > [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > I don’t know at what point this conflict shuts off the flow of oil from Iraq. My guess is that, unless this outcome is judged to be inevitable, the US will start blowing shit up before things get to that point. Should we? I dunno, but I think that is how it will shake out. Nah, I think the Americans have grown tired of Middle East adventurism for the next decade or so. ---
**Author:** ![Rickey\_The\_Rooster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Rickey\_The\_Rooster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rickey_The_Rooster)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/158 "2014-06-23T16:25:32Z")
We have notoriously sucked at picking sides in the Middle East (going back to Reagan and probably even further) and the current quagmire is a good reason why: The instability of the region means that a group that today might seem the best people to have in charge of a country there might actually be the worst thing in a couple of years. My instinct is to say that we should do nothing and let whatever happens there happen. Backing anyone in a fight seems foolish and sending in US troops seems even worse. I agree that with both thoughts that we can’t not do anything and we need to be diplomatic rather than an aggrevator. The fact is that if we can keep from deploying ground troops and usin drones to bomb people we will hopefully be easig a bad situaion rather than increasing it. I’ll be monitering th esituation cloely in Iraq as it has been getting worse and worse. Hopefully there can be some areement made with ISIS to prevent Civil war. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/159 "2014-06-23T16:37:59Z")
I’m surprised petroleum production gets so much attention in this thread. I think the continued suffering of the Iraqi people, and the risk of continued turmoil and terrorism are far more important. Anyway, higher-priced, scarcer, petroleum would serve the interests _both_ of environmentalists who want to reduce oil consumption _and_ most businesses which depend on petroleum assets or production. BTW, I’m as cynical as the next guy about the motives of Cheney, GWB, Rumsfeld et al for their disastrous 2003 invasion, but think oil was at most a secondary consideration. ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971/160 "2014-06-23T16:55:59Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > That’s not more. That’s Kurds defending Kurdistan > > I don’t fail to realize that at all. I am saying that it’s not happening. 100 commandos, if I buy this line, is jackshit. More of a training exercise than joining the battle. The fact that’s all you can find should tell you something. This is not training / they are fighting ISIS on the road to Baghdad which is not Kurdush territory. > [@](#): > > The current chaos also offers an upside: Kurds are moving to consolidate and expand their semi-autonomous homeland. \*\*At the same time, they must fend off ISIS, the militant face of a spiraling Sunni rebellion against Baghdad that also threatens Iraqi Kurds’ hard-won stability and order. \*\* > > The peshmerga – Kurdish for “those who face death” – are no strangers to warfare. … > > Now the peshmerga confront the threat of ISIS. … Mr. Bahjay says the onslaught came as no surprise and that Kurdish intelligence repeatedly warned its partners in Baghdad and the West. > > “We expected the situation to worsen but for it to happen at such speed came as a surprise,” he says. “We’ve been shouting for years: the situation is not good; ISIS needs to get hit [and] what is happening in Syria will ultimately affect the whole world.” The Kurds aren’t stupid. They recognize the threat to Iraqi Kurdistan if ISIS gains control of any territory inside Iraq. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-the-usa-do-in-iraq/690971.md?page=9)