Thursday, May 19, 2005
Oh, Well, I Guess They Can Stop-Loss the 140,000 Already There
So much for bringing the troops home from Iraq soon. The recent upsurge in insurgent violence, coupled by the Iraqi government's and security forces' inability to protect the populace from violence, means no American troop drawdown in the near future.
Link
Two eye-popping items from the John Burns article in the Times: One military officer said Wednesday that the American military deployment in Iraq would last "years" and that the enterprise in Iraq "could still fail." He said "I think it's going to succeed in the long run, even if it takes many, many years."
Many, many years. Do you think all of the pom-pom wielding, cheerleading Americans who supported the war in 2003 thought 140,000 Amercian troops would still be in the country "many, many years" later? Didn't Wolfie and Rummy tell us this would be a quick, cheap surgical strike? Didn't the Bushie's figure Iraq would be turned into a democratic, free-market playground called "Bremerland" and they could be leaning on Iran by now?
Oh, well. In the short run, there have been 21 car bombs in Baghdad this month compared to 25 all of last year. But as Rummy would say, the more violent the insurgency gets, the more we're succeeding.
With over 500 people killed in the past few weeks in insurgent violence all over the country, we must really be making progress.
Link
Two eye-popping items from the John Burns article in the Times: One military officer said Wednesday that the American military deployment in Iraq would last "years" and that the enterprise in Iraq "could still fail." He said "I think it's going to succeed in the long run, even if it takes many, many years."
Many, many years. Do you think all of the pom-pom wielding, cheerleading Americans who supported the war in 2003 thought 140,000 Amercian troops would still be in the country "many, many years" later? Didn't Wolfie and Rummy tell us this would be a quick, cheap surgical strike? Didn't the Bushie's figure Iraq would be turned into a democratic, free-market playground called "Bremerland" and they could be leaning on Iran by now?
Oh, well. In the short run, there have been 21 car bombs in Baghdad this month compared to 25 all of last year. But as Rummy would say, the more violent the insurgency gets, the more we're succeeding.
With over 500 people killed in the past few weeks in insurgent violence all over the country, we must really be making progress.
