Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Bush: The "All But" Decider

Also at Kos.

NBC's Jim Miklashevski reported Wednesday morning that Mr. Bush has "all but decided" to send about 20,000 more troops to Iraq. One has to wonder what he's "all but" still mulling over. Maybe he's starting to wonder if any of his advisers know what they're talking about. I know I would be, if I were Bush.

For a darn long time, he told us he would send more troops to Iraq if his commanders in the field said they needed them. His commanders in the field, most notably Central Command chief General John Abizaid and Iraq theater commander General George Casey, insisted for years that they didn't need more troops. Now Abizaid and Casey are both boarding the train for Palookaville, making way for generals to be determined who will tell Mr. Bush that they do need more troops in Iraq.

Dubya, Can You Hear Me?

For years, the neoconservative anvil choir told us that if we set "timelines" for leaving Iraq, the evildoers would lie low and wait until we left. George Casey proposed what became known as the "stand up/stand down" strategy, and spoke about the possibility of a near term troop draw down, the violence in Iraq actually increased.

Now, the neocon cabal headed by Bill Kristol argues that a short-term surge of troops in Iraq won't work because it will only drive the militants in Iraq into hiding until the ebb subsides, so the troop up-tick should be considered a long term strategy.

So which is it now, Mr. Kristol? Fewer troops will lead to more violence, but more troops will lead to less violence? What are those extra troops supposed to do? Be less violent than the troops who are already there? If that's the case, why not instead send over a couple brigades of Hare Krishnas to pass out copies of the Bhagavad-gita in Sadr City and at the Baghdad Airport? If a bunch of Krishnas get blown up, no one will care, right?

The November elections sent Mr. Bush a loud message that the country has finally had it with his foreign policy and his handing of the war. Mr. Bush interpreted that message as a signal that America was sick and tired of partisan bickering. What Mr. Bush missed was that the election results signaled American was tired of him, and the rubber stamp GOP congress that rolled over for him like a Vegas hooker and let Bill Kristol's neo-conspirators, with the capable help of Dick Cheney, form a shadow government that drives U.S. policy outside the control of the legislature and the electorate.

If Mr. Bush manages to push his escalation plan through Congress, our cherished republic will have "all but" gone the way of the carrier pigeon.

But many will argue that our cherished republic has all but gone that way already.

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Commander Jeff Huber, U.S. Navy (Retired) writes from Virginia Beach, Virginia. Read his commentaries at ePluribus Media and Pen and Sword.

3 comments:

  1. Peace to you and yours Mr. Huber.
    The 1st question comes to mind is, why does Mr. Bush need to push any escalation plan through Congress? Most especially since the Congress time and time again abdicates any responsibility. You know like an up or down vote on a question of War. I'm old fashioned that way as I can tell you are by just the minimal perusing I've done.

    btw - I came by way of someone who did a search on google for "steven baumgart cia " and came to my site from Dubai. I get a lot of hits from Dubai and they mostly concern one post, that I culled from Wayne Madsen's site. I'm 3rd on the search parameters (my blog is moderately popular) and your "Oil, Guns and Money Oct. '05 post is 6th.

    In another vein, I have always been fascinated by History and have read Morrison's "History of U.S. Naval Operations
    in WWII" 4 times. As an Army brat it might seem surprising that I hold the Navy in a bit higher regard. Thing is, Ya can't retreat while one is on the ship and they don't let ya dig foxholes in the deck.

    I finally got to fulfill a dream and see the Fleet at Hampton Roads during the summer of 2001 on the Miss Hampton II.
    I had the cheat sheet of the whole "Navy at a glance" that I got from the gift shop at the Academy. Seeing those HUGE container ships was a trip too. The Navy had just got those Z drive tugs working. They gave us a demo of their capabilities when the USS Oklahoma came in. They put it in half way, brought it out and spun it around like a dial on a compass.

    Well please exscuse my ramblings, I'm suffering from kidney stones and the painkillers give me insomnia.
    I'll visit again.
    Peace.

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  2. Human,

    Thanks for dropping by and commenting.

    By my reckoning the only thing Bush really has to "push" through Congress is the money it will cost to increase the troop level.

    The History of the US Navy in WWII is a compelling book.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Why would Bush "push" money through Congress? He'll just do like he always has, steal it from other items in the military budget and dare Congress to impeach him for it.

    As for 20,000 more troops, utter nonsense. Just 20,000 more targets for the jihadis. It was estimated that it would take 250,000 troops to secure an Iraq which was shell-shocked after a shock-and-awe defeat of its military by the U.S. military. It would take at least twice that many to secure Iraq today. We don't have 500,000 combat troops in the U.S. military. There's no way to get 500,000 combat troops in the U.S. military, short of a draft and a full-scale mobilization of the U.S. economy to produce the weapons needed to arm these troops (who, if we drafted them today, would end up marching into combat in bare feet wearing bathrobes and waving wooden batons, because we don't even have enough boots and uniforms and rifles in inventory to equip that many combat troops). And that's not happening. We know that's not happening. Operation Secure Iraq's Oil is doomed to failure short of that, and 20,000 more troops won't make any difference there, it's as if I owe a $5,000,000 debt and my boss gives me a $50 a month raise, big f'ing deal.

    Madness. King George is mad. That's all I can conclude. Complete, utter, drooling raving madness. Nothing else makes sense.

    - BT

    ReplyDelete