Will Iraq Study Group’s Plan Work on the Battlefield?
December 7th, 2006 | by Craig R. Harmon |The military experts say no…but what do they know?
Plenty of folk in Iraq aren’t too thrilled by it, either.
To me, the study seems more like a plan to get our troops out of Iraq than a plan to leave Iraq anything other than a wreck but that’s always been my impression anyway. If that’s the case, I don’t see that anything much is gained by waiting until the beginning of 2008 to pull out our troops. If you’re going to leave the country a wreck, ripe for the terrorists to set up the same sort of shop that they had in Afghanistan before we ousted them and their state sponsors, you might as well go with Murtha’s plan and be done with it.
14 Responses to “Will Iraq Study Group’s Plan Work on the Battlefield?”
By Dusty on Dec 7, 2006 | Reply
I think we are losing our grip on Afganistan as well. There isn’t a magic pill to fix this crap. A conscensus should figure it the hell out. Oh wait..thats what the ISG report is…
The top brass in the combat theatre should have a freaking report out by now. Everyone else has added their two cents. I can’t keep up with all the “reports”. Have you tried to slog through the 160 page ISG report? Its online for gratis..but jeez, a real thriller and its rhetoric is stale and over used as it is. There is nothing new in that report.
We are so fucked.
By Craig R. Harmon on Dec 7, 2006 | Reply
A conscensus should figure it the hell out.
I’m not sure but consensus could just mean that nobody could agree on any plan that might have a chance to work so they reduced it to the least common denominator…one that has no chance of working. Just because they all agreed on the final product doesn’t guarantee that it’s worth the time and effort.
I’ve seen ecumenical agreements like that. You’ve got two Church denominations that disagree on significant doctrinal matters. They want to join together so they draft a document that is worded so equivocally that everyone can sign off on the document but no two people mean the same thing by the words that they agree upon.
Not saying that that same dynamic was at work here but something similar might be. Some thought that we should start drawing down immediately but others thought that a mistake so they agreed to something in between what the two groups wanted whether that agreed upon position was good, bad, better than either of the other positions or worse than either of them. See what I’m saying. Committees don’t always come up with the best solution.
By the way, there were no military experts on the committee. There was no one that had spent any significant time in Iraq. Sandra Day O’Connor is a great gal but what the heck does she know, expertly speaking, about the best military/diplomatic solution to the Iraq problem? Nothing that I’m aware of so why, other than the fact that she’s well respected, was she chosen to be in the group?
I don’t know, Dusty. I never had much hope for the ISG because I haven’t much respect for the people in it but having read the thing, I’d say that the paper lives up to my every expectation.
By Craig R. Harmon on Dec 7, 2006 | Reply
My impression is that the recommendations are pretty much a mish-mash of what we’re doing now, or at least of things that have been talked about for some time so I guess I agree with that assessment. We spent time and money and great expectations for this?
By Dusty on Dec 7, 2006 | Reply
No, I meant to imply that the Field Generals themselves should have their own report out by now, everyone else has a plan out there. I could tick off half a dozen plans made public on both sides of the aisle. Everyone seems to be tip toeing around this clusterfark.
By Craig R. Harmon on Dec 7, 2006 | Reply
I agree. It doesn’t look good.
By Dusty on Dec 7, 2006 | Reply
Its hurry up and sit around and wait time. I hear the Shrub is supposed to come out w/something vague around Christmas..something to hold us over until the new congress is seated. They all go home pretty soon anyway.
They just pay lip service to it.
By Jimmy on Dec 7, 2006 | Reply
They should send the Decider over to Iraq to personally “smoke ‘em out”. Texas style.
GO BUSH!!!
By Dusty on Dec 7, 2006 | Reply
I have always said they should drop him and Cheney in the middle of Baghdad without shoes, money or a map. If they make it to the greenzone in one piece, its not as bad as I think it is and I will kiss their ass’s.
By Jimmy on Dec 7, 2006 | Reply
That would be an awesome plan, but Dusty you forgot to include Rummy and Wolfowitz. Put Rummy in an unarmored Hum-Vee (the army you have, not the one you wished you had) and have him run patrols for a few weeks.
By Dusty on Dec 7, 2006 | Reply
Well, I used to include Rummy in the equation, but he is retired now, and land-mining his front yard to keep the kids off it I think. But yes, he should still be included too.
By Liberal Jarhead on Dec 11, 2006 | Reply
If they were really interested in the perceptions of anyone who knew what they were talking about, they’d have listened to General Zinni, WMD inspector Scott Ritter, and a lot of others. But they find people who’ve been there and done that, paid their dues and learned firsthand, very threatening because then the next time they have to look in the mirror to shave they are more forcefully reminded of what empty losers they are.
Three good reads, all of which got favorable reviews in the Marine Corps Gazette, the Marine Corps Times, or both:
“Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq,” by Thomas E. Ricks;
“State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III,” by Bob Woodward; and
“Blind Into Baghdad: America’s War in Iraq,” by James Fallows.
By tammara on Dec 18, 2006 | Reply
wrap an american flag around their fucking heads and drop them naked into falujah. end of discussion. bush, cheney, condie, wolfowitz, rummy, and snowjob. ok, no money either. they can get the oil to pay for whatever they need.
no sense to wait to get out until 2008. enough dead already. the sooner we stop the sooner the mess can straighten itself out.
in vietnam at 35,000 dead, these same assholes in different skin knew we could not win. and they blustered and fustered themselves into a snit looking to find a way to win what they knew they could not win. while they fucked around on their golden thrones making money hand over fist another 23,000 troops died. god knows how many vietnamese. we didn’t count them any better than we do the iraqis.
i think we have seen this movie before… and we know how it ends. the question is… how many more have to die before we admit that it doesn’t turn out any differently this time. today’s count 2948. will be 3000 in about 26 days…if we keep to the current killing schedule.
and with about 100 iraqis to each 1 of ours killed, with the super majority of those being civilians, we are winning hearts and minds over there so fast it boggles my brain.
meanwhile, i’ll spend tomorrow trying to unsnaggle the mess that the dod and the educational lenders have made out of the simple project of paying my husbands student loans. these people can not even manage to do accounting and simple paperwork right and we trust them to manage a war….NOT.
By anaveragepatriot on Dec 18, 2006 | Reply
Craig
You know how I feel! As you know, one of my sons is in Afghanistan as are the loved ones of others here but Bush guaranteed the loss of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the entire middle east, when he diverted from the so called war on terror to attack Iraq and destabilize the middle east to establish what he thought would be a new middle east order but as Iraq is, the entire middle east will be a living hell on earth.
Nothing or no one can prevent that which Bush set in motion. Adding more troops and staying there longer, like Vietnam, will only fail still and get more of our troops killed on what any idiot knew from the start would turn out just as it is. You know from many of my past posts that this will in fact get a hell of a lot worse as this is still just getting started. The pompous audacity of any of these senseless so called experts who think they can turn this around.
No way in hell! It has taken on a life of its own and will not be quelled Diplomaticaly or by any other means but war which is what all sides in this want as they think it will end in their favor. No one is going to like what is going to happen.
By Craig R. Harmon on Dec 18, 2006 | Reply
Well, as in all things, you are entitled to your opinion. I don’t share it. I do hope all goes well with your son.