I can't see it making a significant difference to the level of violence in Iraq, it sadly probably just means more young Americans will die serving their country. I think the situation is damned now whatever happens.

Although I feel sending the troops will make it safer for the troops already deployed, terrorists do not fight the type of war that can be won with numbers, the increase will have little affect on the probability of success.

No, it won't make a difference to the violence. The violence has sociological causes, and needs a comprehensive approach. More physical force is not the answer.

Duplicate. sorry.

No. I think it might make things worse and we are really stuck there now, especially without Great Britain there as they once were. I see it as another Viet Nam almost, except this is sand and that was rice paddies and jungles.

well at this pint I think it is kindof a loose loose situation. Whats being done now is not working, if we pull out there will be a sivil war and slaughter of inocent life. I didnt agree to going into Iraq in the first place, but I do think at this point it is not humane to just leave. The current situayion is something we have created by eliminating the former goverment regime ( good or bad) It is not acceptable to go in to a country eliminate their government and then just let all the inocent people that we were supposed to be protecting by going in to Iraq in the first place rot in place with no rules uprisings and an instable government. I think this is inhumane, so I do think that the u.s needs to stay in Iraq, to finish what was started. Again back to my point; at this point it looks like what has been done is not working, pulling out is inhumane and sending more forces is not something to be done without serious consideration. so I feel that sending more troops might be the answer, but In the long run is it going to work... I flat out dont know.. Its quite a mess we have gotten ourself in to.. I`m sure I will get plenty of crap for this answer, but I truly think this is a loose loose situation for all, both Iraq and the U.S and its just about finding the best ( of the bad) solution for both countries.

Yes it will make a difference. It will drive our country further into debt, generate even more hate towards the US by Iraqi's and the entire muslim world. Ruin the lives of about 5,000 of those 20,000. But, you were probably wanting to know if it would improve anything. Yes it will reduce unemployment figures a tad, maybe make the jobs of these troops available to others. Oh, consider them permanent replacements. As so many vets have found out, when they return they so often find their job has been eliminated or reclassified. In fact most combat vets find they have somewhat lower employability than a high school drop out. Employers claim the vets lack job skills or are unstable. And on average it takes 8 years to catch back up to where they left off. These are sadly true facts that I have researched from government documents, mainly the VA.

For those of you who don't know what its like to watch a 19 year old Marine laughing, abruptly stop and slump his head in your lap and drain his blood onto your fatigues because he took a sniper bullet in the face, it's traumatic. What makes it worse, is having to leave the village he gave his life for because our resources were stretched to thin. Even worse than that is watching the fedayeen re-take the village unopposed. They would kill numbers of villagers whom they believed may have given us aid or intel. The next time we came and drove the "bad guys" out, we would lose two more Marines only to find that the villagers wouldn't even talk to us this time. Why would they? We were just going to leave again and the cycle would continue. We just didn't have enough troops to keep the village secure. As much as it pains me to say this, we needed more men. It's so easy to have an opinion about the war, It's much harder to fight it. If you weren't there, you don't know really know shit.