Will the American people support continued war under Obama's adminstration?

musicismylife78

Its the elephant in the room for all his supporters, and his large base of young new voters.

Obama really isnt a RFK candidate despite the continuous allusions to them being similar. RFK ran a antiwar/pull out of vietnam campaign. Obama is not.

So my question is, how will America react when obama continues the war on terror with vigor (his own words)?

If he pulls out of iraq in 16 months and then redeploys those troops, to afghanistan and the war continues on and on, what will be the reaction of people?

Jack Murtha suggested that Afghanistan required a full military effort as recently as a few weeks ago, and said thats what obama will do or needs to do.

This to me is the most troubling thing about the campaign.

Will people's opinion on the war effort stay the same under obama? Are the polls indicative of the idea that americans are against the war under bush, bt under a new administration and with new tactics that americans could be persuaded to support this war which is now one of the longest in american history?

If his base is a large percentage of young people, will they support a continuation and escalation of war in afghanistan?

Commy

This was why it was so hard to vote for him...but I think it will be a less hawkish foreign policy than McCain's. And his domestic policy is very good.


but Obama did say that he would send troops into Pakistan if need be..and that is not right. I hope he was pandering to the chickenhawks. 190,000 people have been displaced as a result of Pakistani efforts to root out the Taliban near the border, I can't imagine the result of a US miltary campaign there.. Many of these people will be spending this winter in tents.

If the war on terror escalates after Obama is elected...I will be that much more responsible for his actions, having voted for him...and so will do that much more to voice my opinions against this bullshit war.

jimed14

First ... I hope Obama can get elected, to me, that's still not a done deal.

As for war ...

I do not want war ... I am hoping it doesn't take 150,000 troops to fight the war vs. Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

I'm hoping Obama can restore our broken ties with allies (and I think he will do a FAR better job than Bush or McCain in this sense) and indeed, they may be able to pick up some of the slack. So many countries have just let us do all the heavy lifting because of Bush and his disregard for the rest of the world, I really hope Obama can restore those broken relationships.

The Russians found out how it is nearly impossible to fight a war in the hills of Afghanistan (and Pakistan) ... so, I'm not really excited for any sort of war in that area ...

At least I know there will be a complete strategy going forward. At least, I friggin' hope so.

It's not a war I'm fully certain I support ... perhaps we'd all be behind this if it were 6 years ago, and it was where we concentrated our efforts from jump. It's tough to swallow now, but, supposedly, Al Qaeda is now just as strong now as they were in 2001.

I never said I supported 100% of Obama's campaign and views, this is one I've been leery of jumping on board with.

What sad is ... is Bush even doing ANYTHING? Are the troops jsut fighting with no Commander in Chief???

musicismylife78

my point however, is during the 2004 lead up to the election, the antiwar movement stopped being "end the war, bring the troops home now". I know this because I was an activist at this time.

The movement became "anyone but bush, elect kerry, elect democrats".

with a democrat now, with a very good chance of winning, and a very enthusiastic public this time around, will these same people who are so enthusiastic about obama, hold obama's feet to the fire?

The proof may be in the pudding, as the mid term elections in 2006 showed us. democrats were elected on the promise they would end the war. we are now approaching 2009, and the the democrats have done zilch to end the war in iraq.

fugawzi

I would think and hope that the longer these wars continue, the more opposed the people will become to them, and hopefully persuade the government to pull out. That said, I think our best realistic shot at getting out of Iraq in the near future is Obama. At least he has suggested it. The other guy who has a realistic shot (using realistic loosely since even McCain's chances are slim at this point) wants to stay there even if it takes "100 years" and until we achieve "victory".

I think the sooner we get out of Iraq, the sooner we can finish up in Afghanistan and hopefully get the hell out of there. Like it or not (I DON'T like it) We are going to be at war for a while to come no matter if it's Obama or McCain. At least in Afghanistan we're fighting a somewhat justified war, that's my opinion. To me, we were attacked by Al-Qaeda, whom the Taliban harbored and aided, and the Taliban is mainly based in Afghanistan. Somehow we ended up in Iraq, where we shouldn't really be.

In a perfect world we wouldn't be at war, our troops would be home, and that money we're spending could go to many things here we could really use. Unfortunately that's not the case as much as I would like it to be. It looks like Obama's our best chance at getting out of these wars sometime in the next 4 years so let's give him a chance before we start criticizing his policies on the war(s). First he's gotta get elected, which is probably going to happen.

fugawzi

Commy wrote:

but Obama did say that he would send troops into Pakistan if need be..and that is not right.

I should respectfully point out that he said IF Musharaff didn't act he would be willing to attack targets in Pakistan anyway. It's hypothetical as you know.

"If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will," Obama said.

So if Bin-Laden or other high value targets are in our sights in Pakistan and Musharaff won't do anything about it, Obama will. I'm not entirely opposed to that. Get those motherfuckers, get the job done, and let's get the fuck out of there. By there I mean the whole region. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Fuckyouistan, Shoveitupyourassistan...all that shit.

jimed14

fugawzi wrote:

By there I mean the whole region. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Fuckyouistan, Shoveitupyourassistan...all that shit.

Actually, have you ever been to Fuckyouistan in the spring time? ahhh, so beautiful ...

fugawzi

jimed14 wrote:

Actually, have you ever been to Fuckyouistan in the spring time? ahhh, so beautiful ...

HAHA. When you're not getting blown up that is.

fugawzi

jimed14 wrote:

What sad is ... is Bush even doing ANYTHING? Are the troops jsut fighting with no Commander in Chief???

The answer to your question is...LAME DUCK.

jimed14

fugawzi wrote:

The answer to your question is...LAME DUCK.

and has been for the past 3-6 months already.

man, they had to *drag* him out during the stock market drop and bail out crisis ... what wsa it ... a week before he said anything? The fucker.

Abuskedti

It is my fantasy, that Obama will talk with leaders of the region and of Iraq and build a plan to return Iraq to Iraq and follow it. It is difficult to attempt to guess what that plan will be - especially since the current american administration has hidden and misrepresented the wishes of the leaders of the region for so long.

fugawzi

jimed14 wrote:

and has been for the past 3-6 months already.

man, they had to *drag* him out during the stock market drop and bail out crisis ... what wsa it ... a week before he said anything? The fucker.

Yep. It's ok though. His time is about to be up fortunately. Can't fucking wait until January. Speaking of which mine is up too. I'm about to crash harder than the stock market the last few weeks.

Cosmo

Every election is a choice of shit or crap.
This election is no different in it will result in either McCain killing Arabs in Iraq or Obama killing Arabs in Afghanistan. I do not pity either candidate in the mess they will inherit. But, those are the consequences of past decisions and the situation that has to be confronted.
We are stuck in a tough situation where there are no easy answers. If we choose to remain in Iraq, the situation in Afghanistan/Pakistan degenerates into a worsening of conditions there. If we shift our focus back to Afghanistan, there remains the wildcard of secular war in Iraq. If we evacuate altogether, we leave a very unstable environment in a volatile and strategic region. Any decision that is made will result in consequences that may yield negative results.
A possible solution I can see is the strenghtening of the effort in Afghanistan by adding more boots on the ground in Afghanistan. One possible, but not probable, solution is to convince our NATO Allies to send in re-enforcements into Afghanistan and to get the U.N. to call for economic sanctions on Pakistan if Pakistan chooses to continually support al Qaeda/Taliban influences in Afghanistan. This isn't going to be easy. Our relations with both European NATO allies and the U.N. have been serverly damaged by the Bush Administration. We will basically have to go to them, hat in hand, and plead with them for their forgiveness and their assistance in straightening out this mess.
We can't do that with Iraq. We broke it... we bought... we need to fix it. We need to get Iraq up and running on its own. We need to quit spearheading combat operations and force the Iraqi forces to take on the fight for their own country, themselves. This is going to be difficult since Iraqis tend to place Religious sect over national pride. They are either Shi'ia or Sunni first, Iraqi second... at best. We knew this going in, we just failed to factor it in as a variable.
We **may** be able to enlist the Arab nations to assist us in Iraq, by having Saudi Arabia, Iran (yes, we need to talk to Iran), Syria and Jordan... as well as Egypt play a role in Iraq's security.
All this hinges on how well we can mend fences with our European Allies and Arab nations and open diplomatic channels with Iran. Tough, extremely challenging tasks. And it is going to cost us... lots and LOTS of money. But, as our War Hawks always like to say... "Freedom Isn't Free", right?
I believe another part of the solution is to get the Arabs in the region involved. Instead of bringing in foriegn workers, give the work to the Arabs living there. Get them to build... get them involved... give them a stake in the claim... so maybe they will get mad at the ones who blow up what they have built. And maybe if our ultimate goal was to accept a Middle East policy that was in the best interest of the people of the Middle East, insteast of America's best interests... we'd wouldn't be in their crosshairs.
...
I know this relys on a lot of complicated variables and a lot of hard work, both on the war front and on the diplomatic front... but, does anyone else have a better idea? If so... I'm listening.
We need to fix the past 7 years of fuck ups... and it ain't gonna be easy... and it ain't gonna be cheap.
But one thing is sure... as long as we, as a nation, remain as divided (along these moronic, made up, political, Red vs. Blue lines) as we have been in the past 8 years... we are surely going to lose.