The Great Decider
On November 20th, Henry Kissinger said a military victory is no longer possible in Iraq. This has been obvious for nearly two years. Most Americans want something done about the quagmire in Iraq, but don’t expect our troops to be redeployed anytime soon.
The Baker-Hamilton Commission is trying to find a solution that “the great decider” will agree to. Hopefully, they will find a way to force the issue of redeploying our troops, which allows Bush and his congressional supporters to save face. Unfortunately, the only way they can save face is to stay in Iraq for another two years and then blame Democrats for losing the war.
General Abizaid testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, and insisted that he doesn’t want timetables. Bush and General Abizaid continue to claim they’ve made progress, but that is an outright lie, because we haven’t made any progress. The fact is that we have 130,000 troops on the ground and during the last six months the violence has continued to increase. Under our occupation the country has broken into civil war and more than 160,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed. Sixty percent are unemployed and there are shortages of food. Most children are without schools and medical care. Oil production and electricity production are below pre-war levels. Christians are now in danger of being killed and thousands of Christian families have had to flee Iraq.
General Abizaid’s plan for Iraq is to speed up the hand-over from American to Iraqi troops. The problem is that Iraqi forces will never be up to the task. The only Iraqi combat units that can hold their own are from the Kurdish Peshmerga militia. The other Iraqi security forces answer more to their political and sectarian bosses than they do to their military commanders.
Entire national police brigades have been pulled off line under the suspicion of corruption and involvement in sectarian death squads. In other units there are more men on vacation than on duty. Men are on the rosters, but they don't actually exist. There are units which have been told to be deployed to other troublesome parts of the country, but they refused to leave their home bases.
The mission has deteriorated, our military has deteriorated, our strategic reserves have deteriorated, and the credibility of our country continues to deteriorated. We’ve trained and equipped 300,000 troops and the time has come for them to solve this civil war for themselves.
A strategic withdrawal of our troops from Iraq is long overdue. Kissinger is a year too late with his shrewd observation. Bush should have listened to John Murtha a year ago and started withdrawing our troops last November.
The Baker-Hamilton Commission is trying to find a solution that “the great decider” will agree to. Hopefully, they will find a way to force the issue of redeploying our troops, which allows Bush and his congressional supporters to save face. Unfortunately, the only way they can save face is to stay in Iraq for another two years and then blame Democrats for losing the war.
General Abizaid testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, and insisted that he doesn’t want timetables. Bush and General Abizaid continue to claim they’ve made progress, but that is an outright lie, because we haven’t made any progress. The fact is that we have 130,000 troops on the ground and during the last six months the violence has continued to increase. Under our occupation the country has broken into civil war and more than 160,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed. Sixty percent are unemployed and there are shortages of food. Most children are without schools and medical care. Oil production and electricity production are below pre-war levels. Christians are now in danger of being killed and thousands of Christian families have had to flee Iraq.
General Abizaid’s plan for Iraq is to speed up the hand-over from American to Iraqi troops. The problem is that Iraqi forces will never be up to the task. The only Iraqi combat units that can hold their own are from the Kurdish Peshmerga militia. The other Iraqi security forces answer more to their political and sectarian bosses than they do to their military commanders.
Entire national police brigades have been pulled off line under the suspicion of corruption and involvement in sectarian death squads. In other units there are more men on vacation than on duty. Men are on the rosters, but they don't actually exist. There are units which have been told to be deployed to other troublesome parts of the country, but they refused to leave their home bases.
The mission has deteriorated, our military has deteriorated, our strategic reserves have deteriorated, and the credibility of our country continues to deteriorated. We’ve trained and equipped 300,000 troops and the time has come for them to solve this civil war for themselves.
A strategic withdrawal of our troops from Iraq is long overdue. Kissinger is a year too late with his shrewd observation. Bush should have listened to John Murtha a year ago and started withdrawing our troops last November.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home