It seems quite clear to me that the US is planning for Iraq what Senator George Aiken urged President Johnson to do exactly 40 years ago.
In October 1966 the Senator urged Johnson to “declare victory and withdraw” from Vietnam.
The noises now coming from various US politicians seem to be suddenly moving in that direction. In spite of reports that the training of the new Iraqi army – America having disastrously disbanded the original army! – is going well enough to hand over to them, a report by Lt. Col. Nick Demas paints a very different picture.
The colonel’s soldiers, most of them inexperienced reservists from Maryland, had been tapped to serve as advisers to the Iraqi army. Bush has touted such advisory teams as key to the US strategy for stabilising Iraq and bringing American troops home. Lt Col Demas and his troops expected some of the best instruction the army had to offer. His report says: " In my 28 years of military service, I have never seen such an appalling approach to training. Nowhere else in the army system would this have been acceptable." His soldiers received only a few hours of instruction in Arabic, Iraqi culture and advising foreign forces.
However, whether the Iraqi army is ready or not, victory will be declared, Bush and his poodles Blair and Howard will claim they stayed the course, saw it through until the job was done, didn’t cut and run. They will wash their collective hands of the devastation they have caused, the civil war, the ongoing carnage, the likely break-up of the country into three.
The Iraqi government will then be blamed for what happens in the future.
Foreign forces need to be withdrawn, of that there is no doubt. But to leave without taking responsibility for causing the disaster is dishonest in the extreme.
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It's a complete debacle, isn't it? The troops will withdraw, the country will descend into total civil war (it's almost there already), eventually it will be partitioned on sectarian lines, both Iran & Syria will end up with more influence and the region will end up far more unstable than it was under Sadam. Exactly what the US did not want. Meanwhile they haven't been able to send enough troops to Afghanistan which is also going down the toilet. Frankly I don't know how it could have gone worse.
And as if a Sunni/Shia conflict isn't enough, wait until the Kurds on the border get back into the action.
Hi from France.
An excellent post. You may want to watch this video report from the Guardian online (UK)
http://www.guardian.co.uk
/video/page/0,,1927660,00.html
excellent post. They destroyed the country and refuse to admit it
$$$Imagine 2.6 Billion$$$
Great post. In the end it's all positioning for the elections. Shame that the fate of so many depends on the election race. Did you see that the congressional race will be the most expensive midterm election, with spending reaching about $2.6bn?. Imagine what could be done with that cash if it was put to good use.
Truth is I served with Lt Col Demas in Iraq. We were attacked and he ran away from the fight leaving me and three other US soldiers with the Iraqi Army unit while he sought safety at an American Base. It was rather hard for me to be under fire and watch my leader run from the fight. Having lost his honor he has since spent his time trying to blaim the US Army for sending him to Iraq. I guess in a way the Army was wrong to trust him that way. The Iraqi unit however performed quite well without him and defeated the insurgent attack.I stayed with them through the fight and evacuated the wounded and showed the Iraqi soldiers that not all Americans run from the fighting. I hope Lt Col Demas finds peace for himself but I don't think he can find it by blaiming others for his problems
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