"Exceedingly Complex"
The title is a quote from our General in charge of the Iraq war. He says too that we might be able to withdraw a brigade in January. "A Brigade is a significantly large unit, consisting of between 1,500 and 3,200 soldiers." A quote from grunt.com. Given our presence, I wouldn't call it significant; it's, what, one,two percent?
In the article I read, the Democrats had little negative to say. Harry Reid blasted President Bush for letting the report be leaked so as to put the blame, whatever that is, on the General. It seems the loyal opposition is more interested in setting the GOP up for defeat next year than offering any reasoned plan for getting us the hell out of the mess the President started and Congress enabled.
Yes, Iraq is exceedingly complex; but, it is deceptively simple. There will never be a good result there, from anyone's point of view. By staying there longer than is necessary to have a safe withdrawal will only have the necessary result that more American military losses, oh, the translation of "loss" is injury and death, so as to save face. Not your face or my face. "America's face." That shimmering ideal that our leaders insist is important to us.
When we leave, we will leave a country and a region in flux, that's a nice benign word. It means that the people that are stuck there will either sit down and work out their problems, or will continue to kill each other. Leaving now or down the road will not change that result.
6 comments:
Your comment about "saving face" is, in my opinion, one of the biggest problems we have today -and have for a long time. We (I use that term loosely - meaning the U.S. and whoever is in charge, not necessarily every last person) seem to have this mentality that we are omnipotent - always have been, always will be -and anything less is a total defeat. Are we "fighting a war" right now or are we supposedly in the clean-up and rebuilding phase? If we are in what often sounds like is the "clean and build" phase, then there is no face saving involved in my opinion. Just tell those in charge in Iraq that our mission has come to an end and it is up to them to follow through and finish the rest of that task. This "face saving" stuff is all relative to who's face is being saved - the politicians, diplomats, etc - or the people on the ground whose lives and limbs are at stake. I'd much rather sacrifice a little saving face than see more families torn apart with sons, daughters, spouses -families grieving. If DUBYA thinks this is so bloody important, let him go do the dirty work - which as you said, will never end due to all the various factions there and their own in-fighting. If they want a certain form of government, peace within their own people, it's time for us to step aside and let them iron out their own issues, set-up their own form of government to their liking.
Oh - and one more thing - now you know why I would never have been successful to work in foreign service or the diplomatic corps, don't you?
The sad thing is that General Petraeus had to wait his turn to be promoted to overall command in Iraq despite his exceptional success in the Kurdish regions where he was first given command.
Imagine if Lincoln had waited until every general junior to McClellan but senior to Grant was given a turn to command the Union Army....
This appears to be a guy who produces results -- a Ph.D. who wrote the book on battling counterinsurgency -- a book that his seniors (and his superiors at DOD) didn't read... at least until recently.
This doesn't mean I'm a fan of our overseas adventures -- but having undertaken them, one might have hoped that the people in charge would seek the best possible people to run the operation.
Hope, sometimes, is in short supply.
You seem to have a better handle on the situation than the politicians in Washington.
Jeni made a good point when she said (and she's not the only one to say this) - "let them iron out their own problems"
This is the crazy part.... since the start of time, there has been 'problems' in the middle east. It's pretty safe to extrapolate that statement to say "They will never iron out their problems - NEVER". No matter to what extreme anyone intervenes, the problems will continue.
That's just a fact of life. Death, taxes, and unrest in the middle east.
Dave - check out my blog today (Sunday) for a new concept in world friendship. No, you don't have to put it in your sidebar, but see if you'd be interested in participating in the concept within your blog.
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