Surge with what?
President Bush says the Democratic plan to set a deadline to bring our troops home from Iraq gives “our enemies the victory they desperately want.”
In the past week we have seen a bomb go off in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament, killing one member; a suicide car bomber take out a bus station and market in the city of Karbala, killing 37; Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announces military tours in Iraq will be extended to 15 months; and three retired general turn down offers to run the Iraqi/Afghanistan Wars as “War Czar.”
What does the enemy want that it is not already getting?
Those 15-month tours – needed to supply the President’s “surge” strategy – bother me the most. They seem to be a sign of the strategy’s basic weakness.
posted by David Wells at 3:42 PM
19 Comments:
at 6:25 PM, April 14, 2007 
Anonymous said...
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at 6:37 PM, April 14, 2007 
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at 10:08 PM, April 14, 2007 
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at 8:44 AM, April 15, 2007 
Brah Coon said...
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at 10:31 AM, April 15, 2007 
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at 11:56 AM, April 15, 2007 
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at 3:22 PM, April 15, 2007 
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at 3:44 PM, April 15, 2007 
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at 5:07 PM, April 15, 2007 
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at 8:10 PM, April 15, 2007 
JohnDWoodSr said...
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at 6:55 AM, April 16, 2007 
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at 9:19 AM, April 16, 2007 
Brah Coon said...
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at 10:19 AM, April 16, 2007 
Anonymous said...
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at 10:43 AM, April 16, 2007 
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at 11:05 AM, April 16, 2007 
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at 4:23 PM, April 16, 2007 
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at 9:26 AM, April 17, 2007 
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at 7:19 PM, April 18, 2007 
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at 8:57 AM, April 19, 2007 
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Post a Comment*The whole thing stinks. Call me a defeatist, whatever. I think Eisenhower had this in mind when he warned us to beware the military indusrial complex.
It's a racket.
I'm confident that David Wells, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi are superior war time commanders compared to General David Petraeus.
The one thing you three share in common are the goals of al-Qaeda and other anti-democracy forces in Iraq. I hope you are proud of your actions.
Note to President Bush (and all the Bush apologists): The Democratic plan to set a deadline to bring our troops home is what the American people "desperately want."
Should U.S. set timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq by 2008?
Yes 57%
No 38%
It is unacceptable that Republicans like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are still obstructing an Iraq exit strategy. The American people are fed up with it.
Well there you have it. anon@6:37 PM, April 14, expresses perfectly the neo-con, war-party position.
One must blindly follow them or one " shares the goals of al-Qaeda".
With us or against us. There can be no other possibility. They praise Gen. Petraeus today but tomorrow he could very well be the next heretic on their mile long list. Ask Gens. Zinni, et al.
How ironic, no, - BIZZARE! - that many of the draft dodger anti Vietnam war "hippies" then, are the very ones now insisting on war without end; not only in Iraq but they are chomping at the bit to expand into Iran, Syria and God only knows where else! Russia?
Meanwhile, many of the anti-war voices today are retired military officers! Most of them combat VETS of the Vietnam war! The list of retired Generals and other officers who have spoken out about the absurdity of this war is long.
Life is strange ...and getting stranger everyday.
The American people also desperately want to be safe in their homeland. If the US packs up and leaves now, you've just created a safe haven right next to the biggest harborer of terrorists in the world. Was it Rice or Powell before the war started that said "if you break it you have to fix it."
To Anon. 6:14 PM April 14:
You make a good point, but may I point out to you that three of the country's top military commanders, who ARE qualified to take the position, have refused the job of leading this 'war'. May I also point out that Iraq War veterans nationally are also sounding the alarm that we need to get out. And I am still waiting to see reports that Osama bin Laden is in Iraq. We gave our Congress and this President permission to get HIM, no one else and nothing else. But regime change in Iraq was the Bush agenda even before 9/11, and that's proven fact (and noted in the 9/11 Commission Report, which I've read).
I am not a lemming lock-stepping blindly after any political party; I have a mind and I choose to use it.
With all due respect, I'll take the opinions of the miliary experts over yours; they ARE qualfied to have one, and they say it's time to come home. So, bring our boys and girls home.
while i agree with what he says, i am dumbfounded that an arch conservative like mr. wells would write such a column.
its important to remember that when someone warns us to watch out for political theatre that they are engaged in exactly that.
its not a coincidence that as more details come out about rove destroying emails and how corrupt this administration is that bush would make desperate crys blaming the democrats for the failure in iraq in an attempt to change the focus.
congress has passed a bill that represents the will of the people. bring our troops home. the only person who fails the troops is george bush with his grandstanding and refusal to sign the bill.
bring the troops home.
I'm not fed up with it, nor are most people I know. I vote for victory effort as opposed to defeat effort.
So, don't speak for me...
LIBERALS will never understand that effective leadership is not conducted by placating to the latest public opinion polls.
I agree with Bush. If we leave before everyone in Iraq is dead, they win.It doesn't matter who our "enemies" are, we seem to be successfully killing off everyone, and only need to stay the course to assure victory, whatever that might be. It's plain that the Democrats don't understand the grand strategy, and are only looking at the political expedient of bringing our troops home alive. Shame on them-they'll do anything to make Bush look bad.
I am a Republican and I agree that it's time to get out of Iraq. However, you can't announce to the whole damn world WHEN it is that you're going to do it.
The government needs to decide when it's going to be and keep it a secret. I know Americans have problems with not knowing everything but if it's in the best interests of our lives...I wonder if we could shut up in just this instance?
Well MrsCabes. We have approximately 150,000 troops in Iraq. A whole bunch of tanks, artillery and 'ya know, trucks and stuff. I'd say it would difficult to sneak all this out overnight whilst " the enemy" is asleep.
Point being: we can never withdraw in such a way as to catch them unawares, with their proverbial pants down. The physical, logistical process of withdrawing from Iraq would be obvious to the " whole world" weeks if not months in advance.
So this argument about the perils of " announcing" a rather non-specific withdraw date just doesn't hold water. In my humble opinion, of course. :)
Oh yes! We would also have inform the democratically elected Iraqi gov. -- in secret of course -- that we intend to leave. In other words -- everybody in Iraq would know it the next day.
When will you believe what the leaders of al-Quadi tell you?
• They want ALL foreign troops out of Muslim lands, immediately.
• Muslim Radicals claim all of the former Ottoman Empire and much more as Muslim lands. They want to restore the Ottoman Empire including Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Greece Peninsula, Middle East, Black and Red Sea Countries, etc.
• Al-Quadi has a fatwa issued by a Muslim “holy man” in Saudi Arabia that it is morally justified to kill 10 million Americans with a nuclear bomb, as a first strike.
• Muslim Wahhabism believes they alone have the power and religious justification to declare who is or is not a believing Muslim. This is how they justify killing fellow Muslims because they declare them excommunicated, ex post facto.
• Muslims believe they are destined to rule the world, including converting by force the non-believers in the West to Muslims. This includes all Christians and Jews.
• As phase one , Al-Quadi has the stated goal of coercing the USA into a Middle East fight on Muslim Land because it is easier to fight the West on their Muslim Home Turf.
Now, leaving Iraq and the Middle East in chaos plays directly into the Muslim’s (100 year) war plan to rule the world. Don’t believe me? Just read their writings and websites for yourself. Please educate yourself before you try to convince others of your misguided follies.
You will be fighting this Radical Muslim Islamic movement now or later. It is inevitable. What is not evident is who will win and rule. Appeasement, withdrawal, and surrender are not winning strategies. Ask Neville Chamberlain.
Thank You, Prime Minister Olmert @10:19 AM. That was very informative.
Anon. 10:19 April 16 says it is not known who wins. I disagree. Christ wins. It's written and it's the real reason this war is going on in the first place. What we did was stick ourselves squarely into the world's oldest family feud and into Bible prophesy. When you include global warming, then read Reveation, you see the clear picture. You can't miss it, and that's what has so many millions of people terrified.
Of course, most folks around here don't believe in God. We who do were told that would happen, too. So all of this is fulfillment of prophesy, that's all. There's nothing we can do about it, and it's out of Bush's hands (it never was in his hands).
I'm just really glad I'm on the winning side, the side of Jesus Christ.
Anon 10:43am....You're welcome !
Anon 11:05 AM, April 16, 2007………I am not a Strict Biblical Constructionist. I do not believe that the Bible can be interpreted literally, in its entirety.
However, I do agree with you that “on the winning side, the side of Jesus Christ” is where you want to be for salvation. But if you know his teachings, Jesus Christ’s Kingdom is not of this mankind world. The winning side of Jesus Christ is in the spiritual afterlife, your soul in heaven for eternity.
God created the earthly world for mankind, to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, his son, to achieve the reward of eternity with God, The One and Only Father.
Thus, mankind’s “free will” must cohabitate, sort out and rule the earthly kingdom; with God the Father, Jesus Christ his Son, and the Holy Spirits’ guidance.
Anon 9:26 AM, April 17:
I'm glad to see someone who agrees with my viewpoint, and yet, I have to share this with you. You DO need to take the words of Revelation literally, but it's not your version of "literally" you need to take. It's John's.
Think about this for a second. You're transported 2000+ years (two freaking thousand years, can you imagine this?) into the future and told to write about what you see. Those writings are Revelation. When it was written, electric light had not been invented yet. Computer graphics, animation, moving pictures, photograthy, X-rays, nuclear warfare, Social Security and the credit system, electronics, tanks, motors and machines, flight...none of these things existed in John's time. He had NO vocabulary to use to describe what he was seeing, so he used what he could, the best he could...hence, verses talking of things like locusts with faces of men and tails with stingers like scorpions (this is a helicopter). You have to take Revelation literally from John's viewpoint to understand it best. Even then, it can seem a bit unbelievable. So let me also share this: global warming is mentioned, and is part of the whole thing (so the event is the fulfillment of prophesy, how's that for mind-blowing?).
I don't want people on this board screaming at me about my beliefs, but they have driven me to research this off and on during my college studies these past few years, and it's a fascinating subject. So please, respect my right to have an opinion, folks...and thanks.
For those too lazy or blind to recognize al-Quadi and Radical Islam Muslim’s message of hatred and death to all Christians and Jews:
Muslims slit throats of three Christians for producing Bibles
Police detained five more suspects Thursday in the deaths of three men who were found with their throats slit in a publishing house that prints Bibles, the latest in a string of attacks targeting Christians in the mostly Muslim country.
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