This war has dragged on for more than 3 years. I believe we've lost--and for three reasons:
1) We didn't have the cultural understanding to win this war.
Policymakers didn't realize that the Iraqis, although grateful for our dethroning Saddam, wouldn't want us to stick around. They didn't realize that Iran would take over the Iraqi government -- as it's slowly doing. We don't realize that when we drive a convoy of tanks down the street armed to the teeth and fire in the middle of the city that people don't want us to be there -- that when they're killed trying to cross a checkpoint that they don't forgive that mistake.
2) We don't have the military to win this war.
We don't have the numbers. We don't have the equipment. We don't have the training. Meanwhile, we've been cutting back on personnel. We've already called up the reservists, and we're now cutting back on personnel: meaning that active duty members are being deployed almost constantly. They're burning out. Pilots with five years to retirement are leaving the service without retirement pay and without hope of being hired by airlines (because they're not hiring). What's that tell you? Politicians are running this war--not soldiers.
3) We can't win a war of attrition.
Vietnam should have told us that. Friends of mine think that if we doubled or tripled the number of troops over there, we'd be able to root out the terrorists and end this soon. I think they're wrong. I think the insurgents have the upper hand. For us to win we have to destroy every last insurgent. They don't have to destroy the U.S. military. They just have to keep picking at us until the paper tiger leaves.
Supporting our troops is not the same thing as supporting the war. A lot of people want you to think that. You can support our troops and also support pulling out. We're never going to get that oil. Chevron doesn't care: they just had their highest profitable year ever. A 25% increase in profits. Meanwhile, the US government slips deeper and deeper into debt.
With the upcoming elections, they're going to want to scare us about the Palestinian elections, the new Bin Laden message, Iran's nuclear ambitions, and the continued war in Iraq. They're going to want to scare you into voting for them. As for me, I'm scared right now.
7 years ago
4 comments:
indeed. more to come...
i'm scared too. we're killing ourselves, and not just in iraq. i was talking with a good friend today about this.... osama bin laden's recent attempt at a truce. apparently, in the islamic faith, such an attempt is a neccessary step preceding a full out attack against whomever adherents of the faith might consider "god's enemies." granted, osama is not the most pious of muslims, but i think he'd use it as a great excuse, and it's a shame that we're so ignorant of their culture that we ignore this, because WE don't want to NEGOTIATE with TERRORISTS. (ironic, when so often it is we who are the terrorists....it all depends on how you look at it. i mean seriously, panama, east timor, and various other genocides profulgated by our nation aside, we can't even keep the stipulations of the Geneva convention.) we'd rather just let our government take care of the bad guys, and ourselves remain oblivious, so that we can continue in our hypnotized consumerist haze... as a friend put it, we want to make sure the world is safe for us to go into american eagle outfitters and buy a new pair of pants tomorrow. David Cross comes out and says it....we've become "a nation of six year olds. 'Daddy? why did the bad guy put the plane in the building?' 'shut him up, take him to the backyard, and give him a cookie!'"
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/international/middleeast/08iran.html
(holocaust cartoon contest announced in tehran)
We have been fighting terrorism for decades... Being in Iraq has made our troops vulnerable to attacks, but whether we take the fight to the enemy or wait for them to bring it to us, they will bring it to us... There is evil out there that seeks to destroy America in the name of holiness and good whether we do anything about it or not.
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