Democrats say the first step to repairing the situation in Iraq is putting substantial pressure on its government to take more responsibility. The best way to do this, they say, is by pulling out some troops right away to signal the U.S. commitment is finite.
Democrats also have called on Bush to convene an international conference on Iraq and say the military mission should begin to switch from a leading role to a supportive one.
Other proposals the administration may be asked to consider include a regional dialogue with U.S. adversaries Iran and Syria, or remaking the Iraq political federation into three largely autonomous sectarian states.
All this means is that the strategy of the terrorists has won. If enough Americans die, then they will get tired and go home. That was the lesson our enemies learned in Vietnam. It was the lesson they learned in Beirut. And now we are teaching them the same lesson again.
Let's face it. We have elections every four years and the leadership changes. The terrorists don't have elections and change strategy every four years. That's the advantage they have in war. Just wait a while and Americans will grow tired and want to go home until the next attack here.
Ann says:
It's the failure of Americans to support the war. It's the folding and crumpling because things didn't go well enough and the way we conspicuously displayed that to our enemies. They're going to use that information.
I think Ann's right. And it is depressing.
If that's what happens, one of the lessons which should be learned is this: when the President decides to go to war, he needs to make *absolutely certain* that he's got the country with him, and explain *from day one* that it's going to be a long haul.
ReplyDeleteI think that if President Bush had told everyone in 2003 that it would be a five-to-ten-year process, and had still managed to muster support for going in, we'd be in a much better situation today.
I think President Bush did tell Americans that this was going to be a very long war. In fact, he said that repeatedly (and even said so recently). I think the problem is that a lot of Americans have a short attention span and didn't want to consider what a five-to-ten-year process would look like.
ReplyDeleteSharon, how come before we invaded Iraq, I knew that we were inheriting our very own Gaza Strip and West Bank writ large and the Bush Administration did not?
ReplyDeleteWhat message was President Bush sending to the American people on May 1, 2003, when he declared an end to major combat operations while standing underneath a banner that read "Mission Accomplished"?
What message was Donald Rumsfeld sending to the American people when in the months following the fall of Baghdad he referred to the insurgents as "dead-enders"?
What message was Vice President Cheney sending to the American people when he said that the insurgency was in its final throes?
Come on and admit it Sharon, the Bush Administration never leveled with the American people about how much the Iraq War would cost us. What happened to General Shinsekei when he said we would need around 300,000 troops to secure Iraq? What happened to Larry Lindsey when he said the war would cost us $200 billion? The Bush administration engaged in what is called salami slicing. They lowballed us with how much the war would cost to get the support of congress and the American people, and now that all of their predictions failed to come true, they would ask us to continue to support the same failed policies.
The truth is the Iraq War was a war of choice, and the Bush administration botched it. It's not Cindy Sheehan's fault. It's not Michael Moore's fault. It's not John Murtha's fault.