Clear, hold and hang out

Posted By Uncle Jimbo

I sometimes refer to The Nation as the last outpost of reasoned thought before you enter the fever swamps of the hater left. More accurate would be to call them the gatekeepers of the swamps themselves. They howl for impeachments and one assumes subsequent hangings as they taunt Bush and Cheney with cries of "Chomsky, Chomsky, Chomsky!" before they drop through the scaffolding.

They have a couple of beauts up today starting with my good buddy John Nichols.

"It has been an open secret for weeks that President Bush would reject the message of the American people from the November 7 elections, along with the advice of savvy military strategists and foreign affairs experts, and surge the United States military deeper into the Iraq quagmire."

I was under the impression that the Baker Iraq Study Group constituted the types of folks W ought to be consulting and they seem to think that a surge was a good idea if that was the judgment of the military commanders on the ground. Nichol's compatriot at The Nation Ari Berman, a noted military expert, oh wait he's just another deranged lefty, but he adds this:

These troops will be sent into a chaotic situation with no discernible mission. Top generals have spoken out against the escalation, and recently-removed CentCom commander Gen John Abizaid reported unanimous opposition among commanders to the surge.

While I will grant that the situation is chaotic, the fact that Mr. Berman is unable to discern a mission says more about his myopia than the lack of a coherent, understandable mission. Heck the White House already has the whole cunning plan up at it's website. While I question the wisdom of sharing our game plan with God and everyone, it does make silly people like Mr. Berman look even sillier. For him and the other brainiacs on the left, we are going to clear, hold and hang out, the last two being the important ones. We have cleared many areas in Iraq and found out that when we left the Iraqis to handle their business, they couldn't.  The insurgents would return and start hacking up all the folks trying to make a better life. Mr. Berman also notes that Gen. Abizaid opposes such a plan,  not to disrespect Abizaid but didn't he just get fired after his plan to turn security over to the Iraqis failed.

We killed plenty of bad guys so far, but we have never hunkered down afterwards with the locals and helped them rebuild their lives. That is the big difference here, and I don't really understand why the heck we weren't doing it before. We have been involved in a counter-insurgency for a couple of years and at least now we will be following a counter-insurgency battle plan. Here's  hoping  Clear, hold and hang out is a winner.

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Clear, hold and hang out

I sometimes refer to The Nation as the last outpost of reasoned thought before you enter the fever swamps of the hater left. More accurate would be to call them the gatekeepers of the swamps themselves. They howl for impeachments and one assumes subsequent hangings as they taunt Bush and Cheney with cries of "Chomsky, Chomsky, Chomsky!" before they drop through the scaffolding.

They have a couple of beauts up today starting with my good buddy John Nichols.

"It has been an open secret for weeks that President Bush would reject the message of the American people from the November 7 elections, along with the advice of savvy military strategists and foreign affairs experts, and surge the United States military deeper into the Iraq quagmire."

I was under the impression that the Baker Iraq Study Group constituted the types of folks W ought to be consulting and they seem to think that a surge was a good idea if that was the judgment of the military commanders on the ground. Nichol's compatriot at The Nation Ari Berman, a noted military expert, oh wait he's just another deranged lefty, but he adds this:

These troops will be sent into a chaotic situation with no discernible mission. Top generals have spoken out against the escalation, and recently-removed CentCom commander Gen John Abizaid reported unanimous opposition among commanders to the surge.

While I will grant that the situation is chaotic, the fact that Mr. Berman is unable to discern a mission says more about his myopia than the lack of a coherent, understandable mission. Heck the White House already has the whole cunning plan up at it's website. While I question the wisdom of sharing our game plan with God and everyone, it does make silly people like Mr. Berman look even sillier. For him and the other brainiacs on the left, we are going to clear, hold and hang out, the last two being the important ones. We have cleared many areas in Iraq and found out that when we left the Iraqis to handle their business, they couldn't.  The insurgents would return and start hacking up all the folks trying to make a better life. Mr. Berman also notes that Gen. Abizaid opposes such a plan,  not to disrespect Abizaid but didn't he just get fired after his plan to turn security over to the Iraqis failed.

We killed plenty of bad guys so far, but we have never hunkered down afterwards with the locals and helped them rebuild their lives. That is the big difference here, and I don't really understand why the heck we weren't doing it before. We have been involved in a counter-insurgency for a couple of years and at least now we will be following a counter-insurgency battle plan. Here's  hoping  Clear, hold and hang out is a winner.

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