Reply #17: That question has two answers. You know that. [View All]

If I was pResident G.W. Bush, and I was a rational human being with a soul, I would:

step 1: declare victory in Iraq. We got Saddam, right? Captured him, gave him a fair trial and hanged him from a yardarm. If you capture the enemy's leader, you've won. So we won and we can declare that we did.

step 2: remove KBR, DynCorp, Blackwater and Bechtel from Iraq...right now.

step 3: hire the Russian Army to go down there and develop an Iraqi Army that isn't full of terrorists, like the one we're in the process of creating is.

step 4: finish building US Embassy Baghdad, but once it's done turn it over to the Iraqi government for use as administrative buildings

step 5: remove all our soldiers from Iraq as quickly as we safely can.

If I was the G.W. Bush we actually have, I would escalate. I know a few things here:

a. The Democrats, even if they hire Bob Shrum to run their next campaign, are going to win the 2008 election. When they do, they will be immediately confronted with a number of problems, all of which I created:

i. The war I started will be generating about 300 caskets per month by the time the Democrats take over.
ii. The economy will be in a total shambles.
iii. The world will hold the North Koreans in higher regard than they hold us.
iv. The entire nation will be a retail economy because our wealth-creating industries will all be on the other side of the Pacific Rim.

b. Most of the senators up for reelection in 2008 will be Republicans who were either brought in at the 1996 election or who benefited from it. If the Democrats have a grain of brain in their heads, they will exploit the fact that these Republicans obstructed the Democrats' efforts to thwart me from destroying the country the way I did. Hence, in 2008 we'll have a fairly decent Democratic majority in the Senate. A 60-vote majority is not out of the question there.

c. Democrats will probably also do well in the House in 2008.

d. If we as Republicans wish to control the direction of the country beyond 2010, we have no choice but to make the Democrats' task so painful to the electorate that no one will ever vote for one again.

Therefore...I would do my level best, as a lame-duck president, to fuck this country up so badly that the Democrats will become poison through their actions.

What would I do in Iraq? Easy. I'dsend the 2nd Infantry Division back to Korea just in case Kim Jong Il gets stupid, I'd leave one division in Europe, and I'd send the rest of the army to Iraq--permanently. None of this troop rotation shit, folks; I'd do like they did in The Big One and ship the whole army, plus the reserves, plus all of the National Guard, overseas for the duration.