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In Reply to: Re: Politics & Religion posted by Acheick on May 24, 2004 at 08:39:26:
A retired NATO general who does a lot of public commentary on the Iraq War said something very interesting last night in response to the President's address to the War College:
This isn't the President's war--this is OUR war, and we have to take responsibility for that fact.
To which I added the following (in my mind): Damn straight this our OUR war--these are OUR kids who are dying and losing limbs. Many, many SGs enlist in the military as a way of getting out and moving on, btw. At least one has been posting from Iraq at the Movingon website.
As far as extra money for equipment goes, fine and good, but don't be fooled by a bill of cheap goods. The generals are saying we need about 80,000 more troops on the ground to set up the security conditions necessary for the establishment of free, open elections. Mr. Bush has promised only a fraction of the necessary troops, because we simply don't have them unless we go to a draft system. No way he'll go to that unless he gets re-elected. He talked about training Iraqis to eventually take on the job, but that is not a tactical possibility for another two years. However, we need more troops yesterday, which is why so many of our soldiers are at greater risk than they should be.
The answer to saving more of the lives and limbs of the kids we've sent into that hellhole is to enlist NATO support. Our "coalition" contributes only 17,000 troops to a region of the world that is of extreme strategic importance to the Europeans, particularly France & Russia. They didn't agree with the President's decision to go into Iraq in the first place, but that doesn't change the fact that they have a serious stake in the outcome of what the US has done by removing Sadam's regime from power. (Basically my position, btw.)
The way I see it, it's in the interest of the NATO alliance to make sure we don't fail miserably, which is a very real possibility at this point in the game. As things stand, we're creating a bigger mess than the neocons claimed would be fixed though this poorly planned, under-financed war. The President has to go back to Congress to ask for more money because he bought a bill of cheap goods in the first place.
