Held Accountable
Until recently, Republican Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon was a Bush supporter. He feels duty-bound to point out that this war has mutated, from taking out a tyrant, ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and establishing democracy, to our military being street cops in a sectarian civil war.
Sen. Smith says: “I’ve concluded that this is a civil war, a fight,between Sunnis and Shiites, over who is the rightful successor to the Prophet Mohammed. This is not our fight and it’s not something we can fix.”
Smith considered it criminal, that in the first World War, day after day, British generals would send thousands of their men running into machine guns and not make adjustments. Today, we are sending our young men and women out in vehicles that cannot withstand blasts from IED’s, without killing them. Smith considers that dumb and dereliction of duty.
In Iraq, Sen. Smith has seen with his own eyes, that we are sending our troops out from the Green Zone, clearing an area and then retreating back to the Green Zone. Smith believes, that when you’re fighting an insurgency, this doesn’t make any sense, because history has proven that to fight and win insurgencies, you have to clear, hold, and then build.
He is not leveling this charge at one person, but say that the American people will and should hold members of Congress accountable. If you have something to say, now is the time to say it. Fight the war intelligently for an objective that's obtainable, or admit our mistake and figure out a way to preserve the lives of our soldiers.
Smith believes that if you conclude that the war is futile and that a year from now, it’s not going to make any difference what our military does, the moral thing to do is to get our men and women out of harm's way. To continue on the same path for another year will allow another 1,000 Americans to die, and it will simply get worse, than it is right now.
Sen. Smith says: “I’ve concluded that this is a civil war, a fight,between Sunnis and Shiites, over who is the rightful successor to the Prophet Mohammed. This is not our fight and it’s not something we can fix.”
Smith considered it criminal, that in the first World War, day after day, British generals would send thousands of their men running into machine guns and not make adjustments. Today, we are sending our young men and women out in vehicles that cannot withstand blasts from IED’s, without killing them. Smith considers that dumb and dereliction of duty.
In Iraq, Sen. Smith has seen with his own eyes, that we are sending our troops out from the Green Zone, clearing an area and then retreating back to the Green Zone. Smith believes, that when you’re fighting an insurgency, this doesn’t make any sense, because history has proven that to fight and win insurgencies, you have to clear, hold, and then build.
He is not leveling this charge at one person, but say that the American people will and should hold members of Congress accountable. If you have something to say, now is the time to say it. Fight the war intelligently for an objective that's obtainable, or admit our mistake and figure out a way to preserve the lives of our soldiers.
Smith believes that if you conclude that the war is futile and that a year from now, it’s not going to make any difference what our military does, the moral thing to do is to get our men and women out of harm's way. To continue on the same path for another year will allow another 1,000 Americans to die, and it will simply get worse, than it is right now.
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