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Reality or Politics?

Something rang true with me this morning when reading Grim at Blackfive.

The whole point of the Surge is to address this particular problem. It is six months in the making, if you count from the start of the buildup. If the politicos in Washington set goals that Iraq could not realize, that is their own fault. It is the fault of those whose goals were set without bothering to take any account of military reality.

We’ve got people who are risking their lives every day to give Iraq the chance embodied by the Surge. There are 25 million people in Iraq whose lives depend on the outcome. These games in DC and among the press, they are beyond reprehensible. Real lives are at stake here — better lives than the ones lived by these politicians and journalists.

It is oh so easy to be the “Armchair General” or to “Monday morning Quarterback” all decisions made in Washington in the past.

The President has often said most of his decisions as to operations in Iraq were made after hearing and taking advice from the Top Brass with boots on the ground. That being said, final decisions were in his hands and are his responsibility. However, I believe both the Commander in Chief and those doing the “hard work” in this war see well beyond Iraq.

Would I like to bring home every soldier, sailor, marine and air force member serving in foreign territory..that goes without saying.

Do I believe as Americans we should expect Iraq to field a strong government of their own..absolutely, but standing up that government will be hard work, especially when dealing with the various sects within the country.

Unfortunately, I believe no harder than it would be to stand up a government today in Washington DC with the partisanship and corruption we have on both sides of the aisle.

Written by Sue

8 Responses to “Reality or Politics?”

  1. Ayschlay Says:

    July 10th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
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    One of things that has puzzled me about the debate over what to do in Iraq is the assertion that Iraqi government must prove itself, or else. As if the bloody morass is largely its fault.

    It reminds me of what happened in Guatemala after the 1954 coup. Going through declassified documents from that time, the story was that the US covertly ousted a democratic regime and replaced with it an authoritarian one, then sent personnel and money that were supposed to transform the country into a “showcase of capitalist democracy.” When that didn’t happen, US officials always blamed those Guatemalans for US failures to reach its goals in Guatemala, as if it had nothing to do with initial US intervention, nothing to do with setting up a government more pleasing to the US than the Guatemalans, and nothing to do with the Americans and their aid programs.

    Something similar happened with the Diem government in South Vietnam.

    You’d think we’d learn.

  2. Sue Says:

    July 10th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
    Visit Sue

    It seems to me that it is Congress which is pushing the idea of timelines and benchmarks..it was not the President nor the military.

    Any time politics (usually congress and generally those running for re-election) begin to believe they can run a war things get screwed up. And one would have to admit that politics now plays the major role in Washington when it come to Iraq. Certainly they have oversight and funding responsibilities but to think they know better than the boots on the ground..well I just can’t take that any further.

    These same Congressmen and women (this includes the Senate), who agreed with the President on taking the action we did, now are running for their political lives, and that to me is both cowardly and unforgivable.

    My fear is not for the politicians or the press in this country, my fear is that once again the US military will be used as a pawn and many will return knowing their mission was not complete and carry that nagging thought the rest of their days. And carry it they do.

    For many of these men and women, this is their profession just as being an engineer, teacher, etc. They take just as much pride in what they do as any civilian and those who find it is not for them seek other employment as do those in the civilian world. Certainly, they do not take failure lightly. To use them and the work they do to protect us for political cover is a disgrace in my thinking.

    I pray this is never looked upon as another VietNam if for no other reason than for the sake of those returning from a battle bravely fought, and if it is to be lost, in my opinion be lost in Washington.

    As to “thinking we would learn,” the events of this world are shaped in real time in my belief. What took place years ago is certainly not applicable today nor will today be a good model for something 20 years down the road. Each situation must be dealt with as it applies to our well being as seen through the eyes of those we put in the highest office of our land. WWI was not WWII which was not Korea which was not VietNam, which is not Iraq.

    Sorry for the length of the comment and it is not meant to be contrary, it is simply the way I see things when it comes to this issue.

  3. Ayschlay Says:

    July 10th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
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    You’re right, Sue, of course about who called first for timetables. Congress and some interest groups and think tanks first pushed for timetables right around the first elections in January 2005. And I believe the Bush response was “As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.”

    My point, though, was that the government (both the Presidency and Congress) back in the 1950s had the arrogance to think it could rebuild states in its own image, an idealized one at that. I see a similar arrogance today in both Congress and the Presidency.

    I’m not surprised you dismiss history so quickly. Americans always have, in part because most of us had really awful social studies and history teachers in school (usually coaches), in part because we’re raised to think the past does not shape our fortunes, and finally because we have a large streak of anti-intellectualism in our public mind–we prefer action and “common sense” (which no one can quite agree on) to intellectualizing.

    Actually, I’m exaggerating. Our military academies, for example, have their students spend a great deal of time on history, not just military, but the whole gamut.

  4. Sue Says:

    July 10th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
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    The military certainly does teach history and more than the average citizen will ever hope to learn. Many of those who enlist (or in past history were drafted)also live history in ways which most of us never will.

    I do not disregard history as a whole, and I did have some fine instructors in the areas of history and civics, (that sure seems like a lifetime ago) but much of what I learned was from those who had been there when it came to matters military.

    I treasure that “education” dearly as it was and is not only military members from who I learned, but the vast array of civilians from all walks of life to which I have been exposed.

    I do not believe in determining which is better, (common sense or intellectual thinking) as all individuals no matter what their determination on any issue or their level of education have something to contribute to every discussion. For instance, it might require education and training to fight any war but many times it is good old fashioned common sense which saves you from disaster.

    I have met some in my lifetime who never saw it past the 8th grade who taught me much with their wisdom, and some with advanced degrees who I could barely stand, and of course the opposite is also true. (I mean no disrespect for anyone on either end of the last equation)

  5. ~J~ Says:

    July 10th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
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    It’s not that I had coaches teaching history as our coaches taught Pys. Ed. It was that I lived through the history of the fifties and sixties and we didn’t see the big picture about Guatemala, if we even knew at the time what it was all about. I lived through Vietnam during high school and until several years after I was married.

    I disagreed with what was done then and I strongly disagree with setting timetables for withdrawal now.

    As has been said already, it is Congress that wants timetables and it is a fatal flaw and a fatal error in my opinion if they succeed.

    These are people who should know better from studying what happened in the past.

    We are never going to get a Jeffersonian type of government in Iraq. The most we can hope for is a government that is free and allows its citizens to live freely.

    To pull out now would mean the biggest slaughter we have seen since the one in Cambodia in the seventies.

    To pull out now would mean genocide in Iraq and a failure of any central government other than extremest Islamists.

    We have the best military in the world and they will complete their mission if given the time and the confidence of the congress and the people back home, but to constantly say they are failing is akin to constantly telling an employee he can’t do the job. These people can do the job and have been doing it.

    I haven’t read the article yet, but I have seen a headline that states even McGovern thinks an anti-war candidate cannot be elected.

    Doesn’t that sound like history repeating itself?

    I know there are people who say let them kill each other over there; just bring our troops home. Well, we are as much a cause of what has happened over there as a help to what good has been done. Give us a chance to fix things under Gen. Petraeus, who is a soldier’s soldier, and then we can come home proud of the job we did and proud we were not interested in occupying a foreign land one minute longer than necessary, but not deserting them one minute sooner than they are ready to protect themselves.

    To let them kill themselves is to let children and old people be killed in barbaric ways. Cutting off heads and baking children to serve to their parents is not what we are about and we should make sure when we leave the powers that would do this will not have the power to do so anymore.

  6. Guss Says:

    July 10th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
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    People like me, only say that because we don’t know what else we can do for a country that won’t even help protect their own people. If you think they are, they are doing an awful job. I don’t think that even one more American troop should die for that type country.

  7. ~J~ Says:

    July 10th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
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    You’re talking of the so-called leadership of Iraq. What about the people who don’t want to blow up everything and don’t want their families killed and roasted? Don’t we have some obligation to them to see their police force and military are capable of taking care of them? That’s what we’re trying to do now.

    I know we disagree on the war, and we both want our troops out as soon as possible. I don’t want anymore American blood shed over there either, but bloodshed is a part of war. They joined an all-volunteer military with the full understanding they could be sent to war and die in that war. Still they did it. Don’t let them have died in vain when we are so close to making it possible for them to care for themselves.

    We deserted them once in 1991 and look what happened under Saddam. There are people who would do the same things to these people now if given the power to carry it out.

  8. Guss Says:

    July 10th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
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    I’ve said all I’m going to say on this subject. I have no answers.