Even if the current troop "surge" in Iraq is successful, it looks like "keeping the peace" in that part of the world could require a U.S. presence for decades.
By any definition, that's not a victory. Don't blame the soldiers. Blame the strategists. This was the world's first politically correct war, the first one where avoiding civilian casualties and protecting civilian infrastructure was as important as getting the enemy to say "I surrender." So we fought a kinder, gentler war. After Baghdad fell, the bombers quit flying and our ground troops swapped bullets and grenades for copies of "How To Win Friends And Influence People." What did we get? A few million very angry people walking around with guns, explosives and absolutely no fear of the U.S. military.
History shows that's a recipe for failure. If we had been serious about winning this war we would have put every available member of the armed forces into Iraq on day one and covered every inch of that godsforsaken piece of dirt with a blanket of steel. We would have picked one city and turned it to ashes, a very effective morale-breaker (see Hiroshima, Dresden). Then we would have shot anything that raised a hand against us and made the U.S. occupation so oppressive that the Iraqis— Shia, Sunni and Kurds alike—would have done anything to get us to leave. Anything. Even behave.
Afterwards, we would have made friends and helped rebuild the country with the clear understanding that if the locals acted up we'd come back and make things even worse than before.
Instead we tried to make friends while the official hostilities were still underway. The people we liberated are now using our soldiers as live targets and bomb-testing dummies. Our troops are the best in the world. They've given it all they had and done everything aked of them. They deserve better. So do the Iraqi people. This war could have ended a year after it began if we'd fought it more aggressively to begin with.
The time for a troop surge was 4 years ago, and it should have been an extra half a million troops, not thirty thousand.
Every day Iraq is looking more and more like a lost cause. That's a tragedy for the men and women who fought, bled and died there and the loved ones they left behind or came home to.
If we lose this war, it won't be because we weren't good enough friends to the Iraqis, but because we weren't good enough enemies.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Pardon my ignorance....After a President says "Mission ACCOMPLISHED" on a battleship, after flying himself there, thus changing the status for all the military from that point forward things get more confusing...in retrospect, just what mission was accomplished? Sadamm Hussein deposed? Not good enough? Well, he's dead now. Your local yokel Iraqi probably feels just as ignorant as me...problem is it's a little closer to their hearts and homes...they wake up to it everyday a bit angrier, I would imagine. Suppose here in Newnan someone REALLY disliked our mayor, went to another country and got those people to come over to Newnan to handle him and toss him out. How would we feel about that? Then they destroy our infrastructures, get the Baptists mad at the Methodists, etc. Then they tell the Newnanites they have got to straighten up, fly right, and get along before they will leave. In the meantime, things escalate on the town square, and freedoms of speech, and a normal way of life come into question. The sheriff and the police chief have been tossed out in the process, and the new guys have a whole new "rule book" to follow. They are too busy trying to learn the new rules to handle the fracus on the town square. Should those foreign helpers get out of Newnan? Those foreign helpers can't be blamed, they are following their country's orders. So just WHAT the Heck is the solution? It's easy enough to write the words, "Hiroshima" or "Dresden" but how would we feel if "Newnan" was written that way? How do you suppose we would feel having our town called godforsaken? I don't think that was a part of the equation of Hiroshima or Dresden, at all.
great comment, gwendol. the war was a mistake, the occupation is a mistake, and no matter what happens next, it will get worse.
I think this is the most ignorant thing you've ever written, Alex. By the most conservative estimates around 70,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. That's not kind or gentle.
How can you call caring about civilians "politcally correct"? It's not politically correct it's the only moral option. If we can't fight a war without killing the people we're trying to help we shouldn't fight it at all. One of the reason people hated Saddam is because he killed civilians.
Get your head out of the dirt and realize other people, no matter where they live, what religion they practice, are valuable in and of themselves.
If you actually thought this out before you wrote it, you should be ashamed. I guess there's no room for morality when all you want is "victory". I'm disappointed in you.
Yes, we should leave now. And when Bin Laden stands next to Armedenijihad and they clasp hands and declare victory over the evil satan, it will be a moment of great American pride. Then they will double their efforts to demolish this country. And no matter how nice we are to them, unless we convert to Islam, we will be infidels in need of eradication.
And then when we have the proverbial gun to our heads again, will you then convert, or hope someone comes along to fight a war that is already 90 years in the making.
I don't, however, see the problem as too little too late. It is the ignorance of believing that if we just leave them alone they will all go away.
We will have to fight this war at some point. The question is the cost now versus the cost in the future. Lets just leave it to our children. What is one more mess for them to clean up.
The problem with Gewndol's analysis is it doesn't go all the way. Waht is being suggested now is that after all the stuff is done, we just leave and let the evil peeps in alabama come in and take over. Then you have to come back to newnan and clean it all up again.
Post a Comment