Iraq Is Not World War II
The president yesterday, not for the first time, sought to compare the ongoing conflict in Iraq to World War II. Does he seriously believe that the American people are going to buy this nonsense? I guess that's what five years of "town-hall meetings" with hand-picked "citizens" who just happen to hang on his every word will do.
Bush seems, in every passing speech, to be embracing further the ridiculous straw-man argument that those who question the conduct the war in Iraq intend to throw open America's borders and invite Zarqawi and bin Laden in for dinner and a round of attack-planning. Laughable. Of course we cannot lose in Iraq. But we cannot win in Iraq if we allow this Administration to carry on with "stay the course" as the only guiding strategic principle. It's as simple as that.
Rumsfeld, who was praised to the ceiling by the president yesterday, said of the war "The goal in this war is not complicated. It is victory. And let there be no doubt: We will prevail." All due respect, Mr. Secretary, but victory is looking like a pretty complicated goal to me right now. What does victory look like in Iraq? If it's so simple, why can't you tell us that? How are we to know when that goal has been attained?
That's what we want. A success strategy. A set of victory benchmarks, backed up by facts, not rhetoric. We've waited far too long.
posted by JBD @ 8:32 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
As you say Victory is not a goal. It's a desire. It's just saying we want to "win". But you can't run a country on that. I have no interest in winning. I do have an interest in a stable Iraq; in an Iraq that can defend itself to a reasonable degree; etc. Even those are far too vague. One assumes that the administration has goals, but they don't wish to share them so that they cannot get stuck with defending numbers and deadlines, when they have to deal with a ever-changing real-world situation. But I begin to wonder if they even have goals. My greatest fear is that the goal is truly to never leave. They want to maintain permanent bases in Central Asia and Iraq in order to intimidate (I mean, spread freedom to) this whole part of the world. Hmm... Maybe we need to send Bush a copy of The Great Game. Or he can ask the UK and Russia how dominating central and west Asia worked out for them.
Post a Comment
<< Home