Republican war supporters are reduced to an absurd circular argument, saying it is too soon to withdraw more US troops because Iraq is not under complete control of the weak central government, while at the same time claiming that government has made "substantial" progress towards assuming responsibility for internal security which progress would be jeopardized by a US withdrawal. Often this mind bending assertion is followed by the prediction that the region will deteriorate into chaos if we leave Iraq. Of course the people who so prophesy are the same Cassandras who insisted Saddam was hiding nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and was harboring al Qaeda. The facts on the ground are more than just "hard", they are debilitating the US. More than a thousand of the government's troops deserted during the recent fighting in Basra. Oil prices are at historic highs and production levels are below those of the embargoed regime of Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi government is so corrupt that it runs a budget surplus while beleaguered America goes deeper into hock to the Chinese for a dysfunctional reconstruction which only lines the pockets of crooked Iraqi functionaries and connected American contractors. US troops are once again fighting al Sadr militia in the dangerous slums of Sadr City. A Democratic congressman interviewed on PBS compared the Charlatan's conduct of the war to watching the "Keystone Cops". I could not agree more with this caveat: the Keystone Cops were funny.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
The Party Line on Iraq
General Petraeus' and Ambassador Crocker's testimony on Capitol Hill publicly confirms what has became obvious to the American people in the last year. Withdrawing from Iraq will absolutely require putting a Democrat in the White House. This fact alone may explain why independent voters are registering as Democrats in record numbers across the United States. The twin representatives of the fundamentally flawed policy to invade and occupy Iraq offered no solution to America's dilemma there. They repeatedly claimed the increase in US troop levels was working while studiously ignoring the primary reasons for the recent decrease in violence, both factors not under our direct control: Muqtada al Sadr's declaring a cease fire for his Shia militia so he could consolidate control, and the decision of Sunni tribal leaders to turn on foreign terrorists operating in Iraq (the so-called "Sunni Awakening"). A decision motivated in part by US payments and weapons. Ninety thousand Sunni volunteers are on the US payroll. The US will spend $150 million this year to insure Sunni tribal cooperation with the occupation. On balance, Iraq's government has made precious little progress towards national reconciliation despite our expenditure of over 4,000 American lives and $600 billion during the past five years. The recent Shia factional fighting in Basra drove the point home. The United States has so little political influence in Iraq that only Iranian Shias were able to broker a cease fire at Basra. Nevertheless, Republicans seem more than willing to go down saluting our military and blame the Democrats for sinking a ship full of holes when it was launched.
Republican war supporters are reduced to an absurd circular argument, saying it is too soon to withdraw more US troops because Iraq is not under complete control of the weak central government, while at the same time claiming that government has made "substantial" progress towards assuming responsibility for internal security which progress would be jeopardized by a US withdrawal. Often this mind bending assertion is followed by the prediction that the region will deteriorate into chaos if we leave Iraq. Of course the people who so prophesy are the same Cassandras who insisted Saddam was hiding nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and was harboring al Qaeda. The facts on the ground are more than just "hard", they are debilitating the US. More than a thousand of the government's troops deserted during the recent fighting in Basra. Oil prices are at historic highs and production levels are below those of the embargoed regime of Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi government is so corrupt that it runs a budget surplus while beleaguered America goes deeper into hock to the Chinese for a dysfunctional reconstruction which only lines the pockets of crooked Iraqi functionaries and connected American contractors. US troops are once again fighting al Sadr militia in the dangerous slums of Sadr City. A Democratic congressman interviewed on PBS compared the Charlatan's conduct of the war to watching the "Keystone Cops". I could not agree more with this caveat: the Keystone Cops were funny.
Republican war supporters are reduced to an absurd circular argument, saying it is too soon to withdraw more US troops because Iraq is not under complete control of the weak central government, while at the same time claiming that government has made "substantial" progress towards assuming responsibility for internal security which progress would be jeopardized by a US withdrawal. Often this mind bending assertion is followed by the prediction that the region will deteriorate into chaos if we leave Iraq. Of course the people who so prophesy are the same Cassandras who insisted Saddam was hiding nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and was harboring al Qaeda. The facts on the ground are more than just "hard", they are debilitating the US. More than a thousand of the government's troops deserted during the recent fighting in Basra. Oil prices are at historic highs and production levels are below those of the embargoed regime of Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi government is so corrupt that it runs a budget surplus while beleaguered America goes deeper into hock to the Chinese for a dysfunctional reconstruction which only lines the pockets of crooked Iraqi functionaries and connected American contractors. US troops are once again fighting al Sadr militia in the dangerous slums of Sadr City. A Democratic congressman interviewed on PBS compared the Charlatan's conduct of the war to watching the "Keystone Cops". I could not agree more with this caveat: the Keystone Cops were funny.