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We Dems need to come up with an alternative military/political strategy which takes the following into account:
1. We've lost in Iraq. That puppy is over.
2. We're actually losing another war as well -- the one in Afghanistan. We're losing there because we don't have enough troops on the ground. Karzai's complaining about air attacks underscores the fact that we're trying to use aircraft as a substitute for soldiers and that just won't work, particularly in terrrain like that in Afghanistan.
3. "Immediate withdrawal from Iraq" actually means in military terms "withdrawal from Iraq in good order plus with enough force protection to cover the last battalion/brigade in country which has the duty of turning out all the lights and padlocking all the doors on its way out". That translates to somewhere between nine months and a year.
4. We need a response to Karl's "Cut and Run" which shifts the burden of proof back to him and Dear Leader.
A possible alternative:
1. In the next 90 to 120 days, all the regular Army and USMC light infantry/air assault/SF troops now in Iraq are repositioned to the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Their missions are to kill/capture al Qaeda on both sides of the border and to stabilize Afghanistan. When Karzai says leave, we leave (after the first mission is completed). After all, no oil in Afghanistan.
2. The remaining forces in Iraq -- Reserve and NG units plus regular Army and USMC armor/armored cav/mech infantry -- are relocated to Kuwait in the east and to temporary basing in Jordan in the west.
Their missions are to rotate in country so as to keep training the Iraqi forces and to act as a Quick Reaction Force if/when the Bandini hits the air supply.
When the dates arrive for the Reserve and NG forces to come home, they're not replaced.
By the end of, say a year, we'd be down to two or brigades in Kuwait, about what we had there before the invasion.
This alternative (or any of its thousand variations) allows us to counter Karl's bumper sticker accusation of "Cut and Run" with a bumper sticker response: "Remember 9/11; Let's Finally Get Osama Been Forgotten".
Posted at September 21, 2005 5:58 PM in response to A Third Way in Iraq?
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Billmon is all over this.
Buried in Dear Leader's speech is the reality shift: Now there are no longer just terrorists; now there are terrorists and insurgents.
The Big Bug Out from Iraq has well and truly begun. If we aren't already holding secret talks with the "insurgents" (as opposed to the "terrorists" -- what, you see no difference between them? Why do you hate America?) we soon will be. And we are of course holding secret talks.
He's signalled he's going to sell Iraq down the river as surely as Kissinger did with RVN in '73.
The cynicism is breath-taking even for this pack of thugs.Posted at June 28, 2005 7:07 PM in response to Prez says Dance with the Girl Who Brung Ya
