Today's Washington Post story "Commanders in Iraq See 'Surge' Into '08" along with today's conversation on C-SPAN's "open lines" on the subject, convinces me that we are being lied to and, more and more, we are being nickled and dimed into this never-ending, senseless war. The Pentagon announced that 35,000 more soldiers will be deployed to Iraq beginning in August this year. What happened to Bush's plan in January to just send in 20,000 more troops? Lt. Gen. Odierno, the day-to-day commander for US military operations in Iraq says in the article "What I am trying to do is to get until April (2008) so we can decide whether to keep it going or not." The administration's dates to determine if "it's working" keeps slipping and the numbers of troops to get it done keeps increasing. And to top all this, the Iraqi government, who are tasked with specific benchmarks to make this work, are going on vacation for 2 - 3 months, while our soldiers are being killed and maimed there while they are on vacation!!!!
And, as the article reports, it seems we are not allowed to see the data that tells us what is going on there regarding attack trends:
The U.S. military commands that oversee Baghdad and Iraq as a whole have so far failed to meet requests to release current statistics on attack trends, with some U.S. officers voicing concern that the information would be skewed by critics to argue that the strategy is not working.
So the questions, as I see it, are what honestly and exactly does it take to "win" this war or, as I heard it said by someone, what does it take to leave but "save face"? Think about it, this administration will not tell us what they are doing, what the results of what they are doing are, and when, if ever, we can save the lives of those brave soldiers who remain in Iraq who won't be so lucky in the future! In April 23, 1971, John Kerry, before the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations, asked the question: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?...." Are you willing to sacrifice your son, daugher, husband, wife, etc. until the Bush administration can figure out how to "save face"?
If this occupation, "to protect our interests", is sustained, then I think the only honorable thing for those "who support the troops" and the war to do is go right down to the recruiting station and sign up! As I understand it, they'll take people up to the age of 42! Really, put your "money" where your mouth is. Are you willing to ask your fellow Americans to keep going back and back to the hell of Iraq and not want to help them out? Is that not your definition of true patriotism? Or should we institute a draft to help out these brave souls that suffer? After all, we're available .... we should be willing to leave our families, our job, our vacations, and go to Iraq and help out our fellow Americans.
That is what it would take to end this senseless and hideous war that we are so willing to let others sacrifice their lives for! Because, like Vietnam, we won't be told the truth about what is actually going on, and that we need more troops, while brave American soldiers will literally be nickled and dimed to "death"!
Write your senators and representatives and tell them "bring our brave soldiers home....don't make one more family suffer". Make it personal because that is what it is to those who've died or been maimed!!
UPDATE: Seems the folks at Commerce, including a Bush administration political appointee, aren't ready to vacation in Iraq for a year. http://www.washingto...
To boil down LithiumCola's theme to its essence: "It's about the oil, stupid. Always was, and still is."
Here is the link: http://www.dailykos....
There is an edless supply of military "yes men" to keep Bush from taking responsibility for the rest of his term and passing Iraq along to the next administration.
Get out now!!!
"Gen. David Petraeus said the war will require "an enormous commitment" by the United States."
This doesn't sound like 20,000 troops and 6 months.
In addition to the cost on our brave troops, I've read estimates that the cost of the Afghan and Iraq wars is approaching 10 billion per month. I don't know how we can spend money like this indefinitely.
Oh good, well at least they managed to pick up one lesson of "democracy" from Bush. Wonder if they'll be clearing any brush on their little vacation.
I also certainly hope when Cheney is in Iraq he goes up to Sadir City with out any escort and yells, "Hey I am Dick Cheney and I am hear to liberate you" and then I'd love to watch what happens to him.
Tom Davis believes that we need to "find a way to declare victory" ... so that we can get out of Iraq.
Davis stressed that Republicans will remain united against the Democratic bill in the House today. But the search for an exit is almost inevitable. "The key for everybody is to try to find a way to declare victory and get out of there," he said.
Mr. Davis, how many soldiers will die or be maimed while you, Bush, and your fellow Republicans can figure out a definition of victory? How many families will have to be told that their loved one will not be returning home?