Biggest Challenege for Next Pres

[lehighguy]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the next president will be a democrat. I believe this because we will still be in Iraq in '08 and no one will like it.

I believe the new Dem pres will withdraw troops from Iraq immediately. This may set in motion a series of events.

1) Osama Bin Laden releases a video proclaiming liberation of Iraq. Says West is faltering. Calls for attacks on American soil.
2) Small scale easy to implement terrorist attacks happen in a few American cities. A suicide bomber walks into a crowded mall. A car bomb goes of on a city street. Etc.
3) Republicans blame current president. Say we are fighting over here because we surrendered to them over there.
4) A frightened populace buys into the argument.

How does the new Dem pres play the hand given to him?

[Vagos]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm going to go out on a limb and say the next president will be a democrat. I believe this because we will still be in Iraq in '08 and no one will like it.

I believe the new Dem pres will withdraw troops from Iraq immediately. This may set in motion a series of events.

1) Osama Bin Laden releases a video proclaiming liberation of Iraq. Says West is faltering. Calls for attacks on American soil.
2) Small scale easy to implement terrorist attacks happen in a few American cities. A suicide bomber walks into a crowded mall. A car bomb goes of on a city street. Etc.
3) Republicans blame current president. Say we are fighting over here because we surrendered to them over there.
4) A frightened populace buys into the argument.

How does the new Dem pres play the hand given to him?

[/ QUOTE ]

If this happened, he wouldn't be able to play the hand. People would be super pissed and couldn't wait until 2012 when they can go vote Republican again. Then back to Democrat, then Republican...and yet somehow never realizing they are just choosing between

and

[Dane S]

[ QUOTE ]
1) Osama Bin Laden releases a video proclaiming liberation of Iraq. Says West is faltering. Calls for attacks on American soil.
2) Small scale easy to implement terrorist attacks happen in a few American cities. A suicide bomber walks into a crowded mall. A car bomb goes of on a city street. Etc.
3) Republicans blame current president. Say we are fighting over here because we surrendered to them over there.
4) A frightened populace buys into the argument.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's possible any of this stuff could happen, but how could leaving Iraq possibly be a cause? Wouldn't staying there be more likely to motivate Bin Ladin/terrorists? If terrorist attacks happen after the US pulls out, I'd go out on a limb and say they would have happened anyway if the US stayed, or been worse if anything.

[lehighguy]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
1) Osama Bin Laden releases a video proclaiming liberation of Iraq. Says West is faltering. Calls for attacks on American soil.
2) Small scale easy to implement terrorist attacks happen in a few American cities. A suicide bomber walks into a crowded mall. A car bomb goes of on a city street. Etc.
3) Republicans blame current president. Say we are fighting over here because we surrendered to them over there.
4) A frightened populace buys into the argument.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's possible any of this stuff could happen, but how could leaving Iraq possibly be a cause? Wouldn't staying there be more likely to motivate Bin Ladin/terrorists? If terrorist attacks happen after the US pulls out, I'd go out on a limb and say they would have happened anyway if the US stayed, or been worse if anything.

[/ QUOTE ]

Whether the pullout actually caused it is fairly irrelevant to the problem. As long as the public perceives it that way there is a problem.

[Misfire]

Whether or not we pull out of Iraq, we will still have troops "on holy land" in the middle east, which is supposedly what has bin Laden and co. so angry at us. My prediction is that regardless who wins, the next president will keep troops in Iraq citing how complicated the situation is, difficulties with a total pullout, and/or problems with the stability of the new Iraqi government.

[samsonite2100]

Why would pulling out of Iraq make small-scale terrorism in American cities any more likely? If anything, it would make it less likely since 1) we would have less of an inflammatory presence in the ME, and 2) we would have more money to allocate to intelligence and domestic programs.

[ojc02]

There seems to be this persistent fallacy of: "We're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here."

This assumes a set number of terrorists who are desperately fighting over there and licking their chops for a chance to get over to america as soon as they're done over there.

Every day that we have troops over there, it is increasing the number of people who want to kill us. We're stuck in the middle of a civil war. I dare say the vast majority of those that are killed in iraq would not be looking to come to the US to do us harm here.

[lehighguy]

I disagree. I think Dems would (are) advocating a total pullout right now, they just can't because Bush is in power. A substantial majority of the populace supports it as well.

[JOHNY CA$H]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
1) Osama Bin Laden releases a video proclaiming liberation of Iraq. Says West is faltering. Calls for attacks on American soil.
2) Small scale easy to implement terrorist attacks happen in a few American cities. A suicide bomber walks into a crowded mall. A car bomb goes of on a city street. Etc.
3) Republicans blame current president. Say we are fighting over here because we surrendered to them over there.
4) A frightened populace buys into the argument.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's possible any of this stuff could happen, but how could leaving Iraq possibly be a cause? Wouldn't staying there be more likely to motivate Bin Ladin/terrorists? If terrorist attacks happen after the US pulls out, I'd go out on a limb and say they would have happened anyway if the US stayed, or been worse if anything.

[/ QUOTE ]

If terrorists want to attack the U.S on U.S soil, what is stopping them now, and how would that change if the U.S left Iraq?

[lehighguy]

Perhaps our inflammatory presence is a goal of Bin Laden's. He could never topple America, but he could use us to shape the ME as he sees fit.

As far as #2, I believe small scale terrorism is completely unpreventable. How do you stop someone from building a bomb in their basement and blowing themselves up in a public place. You can't. If we haven't had terrorist strikes since 9/11, it's because no broad based effort has been mounted by terrorists.