Reinforce to victory or retreat to defeat?
Thursday, November 30, 2006
The Iraq Study Group will advocate a policy of cut and start packing it seems, relocating our forces either to bunkers in Baghdad or perhaps a nearby country, presumably not to Okinawa. Hey maybe we could head back to Saudi Arabia that worked out pretty well didn't it? They also will issue a timeline for withdrawal with no dates. These realists have an interesting version of real.
I don't think there is a chance in hell that will be adopted since like most bi-partisan wanks it produced nothing but a fleeting sense of joy for the individuals involved and not a damn thing of substance.
So we have a fairly simple choice here, reinforce and aim for a victory or retreat and manage a defeat. That's it. One must be chosen decisively and then implemented with a full effort. I choose to reinforce and here is what and why.
We never defeated Sadaam's Baathists and that has been our greatest problem. They cut and ran when the Thunder Run to Baghdad rolled by and when we disbanded the military we left a huge batch of thugs with no skills other than killing sitting idly by. They waited for the reprisals they assumed were coming, but when no one rounded them up for slaughter they cranked up the insurgency. Their initial successes led Al-Qaeda to begin the influx of foreign terrorists and we have been engaged with them ever since. Early on the Sadr brigades acted up and in a huge miscalculation we decided that the help of Al Sistani was more important than the trouble represented by Mookie and his iron-sandaled thugs. Wrong! A well-placed round or 2,000 lb bomb would have bought a lot more stability than a kow tow to a Shiite leader who, like the pope has no divisions.