On staying the course
Jim K has it on moving pictures, with sound, too.
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Comments
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What is “stay the course”? As a strategy (as opposed to merely a talking point), it is better than cut and run but it is on the same, wrong side of the continuum - it is far from good enough. This war is not being accorded the commitment it needs.
Pretty much everyone in elected office is scared of this truth and guilty of jumping at every distracted from the true situation. The onoy area where the administration has shown any significant leadership is in the suppression of this reality.
After reading dozens of opinions this week on Iraq, each of which chimed into one of three or four stock takes (none with an actual prescription) on the war, I read this report to WSJ from an Army sergeant in Iraq. It’s a nice, brutal little orientation to the situation.
It truly concerns me how slow on the blog uptake this piece was yesterday. Here’s the crucial paragraph, which is important enough to reprint IMO (but read the whole thing):
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We need to backtrack. We need to publicly admit we’re backtracking. This is the opening battle of the ideological struggle of the 21st century. We cannot afford to lose it because of political inconveniences. Reassert direct administration, put 400,000 to 500,000 American troops on the ground, disband most of the current Iraqi police and retrain and reindoctrinate the Iraqi army until it becomes a military that’s fighting for a nation, not simply some sect or faction. Reassure the Iraqi people that we’re going to provide them security and then follow through. Disarm the nation: Sunnis, Shias, militia groups, everyone. Issue national ID cards to everyone and control the movement of the population.
(apologies for mostly lifting this comment from my own blog entry. my main concern is getting this article out there)
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Link to the above article
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biwah,
I’ve made the case for more troops myself. Altho I confess it isn’t going to happen.
All rhetoric aside, including the quoted Army sergeant, no one really believes that this is about the future of Western civilization. Bush *says* it is that important, but he won’t take the steps needed, spelled d-r-a-f-t, to put half a million troops in Iraq.
Maybe the war in Iraq *is* that important. But no one in authority, not Bush, not Pelosi, is acting that way. Nor will anyone act that way. The American people don’t want it.
Maybe we, they, everyone is being short-sighted, but when you strip away all the rhetoric, we’ve lost this one and we are willing to take it on the chin.
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I agree that the Sgt does not necessarily have THE prescription for us. But any evaluation of our options has to consider the war on this kind of scale. Consider going all out, with great sacrifice and great reward, or go home. “Stay the course” is nothing but deceit - it is not an option.
I cannot claim to know what we should do, but we need to at least know what the decision truly entails.
Regarding the ideological struggle of the 21st century, I have my doubts too, but I think that what he is seeing on the ground over there has led him to take this view. I don’t know what it is, but I do veleive that being there puts you in the best position to get that elusive pulse on the overall heft of this conflict.
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