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A change in Iraq war plans is needed, but no one in the White House can see it
McClatchy Newspapers ^ | 8.30.06 | Joseph Galloway

Posted on 09/01/2006 10:41:50 AM PDT by meandog

By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY

The president's news conference this week was as close to a declaration of policy bankruptcy as anything seen so far in his stewardship of the 3 1/2-year war in Iraq.

With his poll numbers still down around his ankles and even some key Republicans questioning the wisdom of staying the course in Iraq, President Bush flatly declared there will be no withdrawal of American troops before noon Jan. 20, 2009.

I believe it was Will Rogers who said when you find yourself in a hole the first thing to do is quit digging. The president knows he's in a hole and he's still digging furiously and promising he won't quit digging. Ever.

What kind of sense does this make?

(Excerpt) Read more at realcities.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bush; cheney; generals; iraq; rumsfeld
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Joseph L. Galloway is former senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers and co-author of the national best-seller "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young." Readers may write to him at: P.O. Box 399, Bayside, Texas 78340; e-mail: jlgalloway2@cs.com.

General H. Norman Schwarzkopf has called Joseph L. Galloway, a military columnist for McClatchy Newspapers, "The finest combat correspondent of our generation — a soldier's reporter and a soldier's friend."

1 posted on 09/01/2006 10:41:53 AM PDT by meandog
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To: meandog

"President Bush flatly declared there will be no withdrawal of American troops before noon Jan. 20, 2009."

What?


2 posted on 09/01/2006 10:45:52 AM PDT by Prokopton
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To: meandog

Capitulating to the enemy and cutting-and-running are NOT appropriate measures to take. I don't care whether this man is considered "The finest combat correspondent" by anyone. Unless he (or those he is representing) articulates a real plan for how to enact a change in Iraq, then he should just STFU.


3 posted on 09/01/2006 10:46:57 AM PDT by SoldierDad (Proud Father of an American Soldier)
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To: meandog

Yep, nobody in the White House knows anything or can see anything or will listen to anything. Riiiight.


4 posted on 09/01/2006 10:47:25 AM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the law of the excluded middle)
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To: meandog
What's needed, and has been desperately needed since the summer of 2003, is a strong counter-insurgency program. And a viable counter-insurgency campaign is police work, not the work of regular Army and Marine troops with Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, artillery and air strikes.

How effective are police forces against militias armed with car bombs, rockets and mortars?

5 posted on 09/01/2006 10:49:10 AM PDT by bnelson44 (Proud parent of a tanker! (Charlie Mike, son))
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To: meandog

What is it with people named Galloway?


6 posted on 09/01/2006 10:51:19 AM PDT by stocksthatgoup ("Is it real? Or is it Reuters?")
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To: meandog
I guess these "journalist" don't read reports especially the one that said attacks and murder are down. Even MSNBC claimed that our troops are taking 2 steps forward 1 step back meaning the current plan is working.
7 posted on 09/01/2006 10:52:28 AM PDT by tobyhill (The War on Terrorism is not for the weak.)
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To: meandog

Joseph Galloway has his head up his arse. Sounds just like George Galloway to me.


8 posted on 09/01/2006 10:52:47 AM PDT by pissant
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To: Prokopton
What?

Indeed...there better not be any withdrawals after Jan. 20, 2009!

9 posted on 09/01/2006 10:53:38 AM PDT by meandog (While Clinton isn't fit even to scrape Reagan's shoes, Bush will never fill them!)
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To: meandog
What's needed, and has been desperately needed since the summer of 2003, is a strong counter-insurgency program. And a viable counter-insurgency campaign is police work, not the work of regular Army and Marine troops with Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, artillery and air strikes.

Man, this guy is brilliant . Just put the terrorists under arrest!--Why couldn't I think of that!?

10 posted on 09/01/2006 10:53:46 AM PDT by San Jacinto
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To: SoldierDad
Capitulating to the enemy and cutting-and-running are NOT appropriate measures to take. I don't care whether this man is considered "The finest combat correspondent" by anyone. Unless he (or those he is representing) articulates a real plan for how to enact a change in Iraq, then he should just STFU.

He's not saying to cut and run...he's saying that there needs to be a change in strategy in Iraq by building a professional police force to control the insurgency.

11 posted on 09/01/2006 10:55:26 AM PDT by meandog (While Clinton isn't fit even to scrape Reagan's shoes, Bush will never fill them!)
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To: meandog

Wasn't that the basis for the Mel Gibson film 'We Were Soldiers'? Does Mr. Galloway think that the Islamist terrorists will be any more reasonable than the Viet Cong? Should we have just put Ho Chi Minh under arrest?

Sigh...here we actually have an applicable lesson from one war to another and the one guy who wrote something useful about the first goes all clueless about the second.

There's got to be a reason for this.


12 posted on 09/01/2006 10:55:52 AM PDT by BelegStrongbow (www.stjosephssanford.org)
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To: San Jacinto

LOL


13 posted on 09/01/2006 10:56:06 AM PDT by pissant
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To: meandog
...he's saying that there needs to be a change in strategy in Iraq by building a professional police force to control the insurgency

And they should also pass a law making it illegal to set off car bombs in public.

He is for withdrawing the troops. Some would say that's 'cut and run', and his call for a better police force is just cover language--like suggesting "re-deploymnet" of our forces.

14 posted on 09/01/2006 11:03:06 AM PDT by San Jacinto
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To: SoldierDad

I just emailed this self-absorbed hack. One of the problems with somebody like this is that they have come to believe their own press clips and believe they have attained an all-knowing GOD status in their specific area of knowledge.


15 posted on 09/01/2006 11:04:45 AM PDT by rj45mis
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To: SoldierDad

It helps to read the entire article. The author does put forward a plan. I know it's really close to the end of the article, but it is there.

Nowhere does he suggest cut and run or capitulation. Again, reading the article would have provided that insight.

I gather that it is now unacceptable on this forum to even suggest that we have conducted this war in Iraq less perfectly than we should have? My goodness, governments can screw up a free lunch, but because we like GW, we refuse to believe that anything he does could be anything other than the best of the best?

I don't get it.


16 posted on 09/01/2006 11:07:12 AM PDT by dmz
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To: meandog

I've read a number of his columns.

His reputation has gone to his head. Logic has not. He's stuck on Vietnam.


17 posted on 09/01/2006 11:08:01 AM PDT by Mr Rogers (I'm agnostic on evolution, but sit ups are from Hell!)
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To: meandog

"he's saying that there needs to be a change in strategy in Iraq by building a professional police force to control the insurgency."

Actually, that IS the strategy of GWB. It usually takes 10-15 years, with US involvement slowly decreasing.

Galloway either isn't smart enough to understand (unlikely), or he blabbing to show his liberal friends in the media that he is really 'one of them'.


18 posted on 09/01/2006 11:10:52 AM PDT by Mr Rogers (I'm agnostic on evolution, but sit ups are from Hell!)
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To: dmz

People are addressing his plan. Which seems to be to build the police force. Isn't that what it is? Well, when was a police force effective against a militia armed with car bombs, rockets and mortars? Maybe there was a time? I am honestly asking the question. Do you know of an instance? Does he?


19 posted on 09/01/2006 11:13:36 AM PDT by bnelson44 (Proud parent of a tanker! (Charlie Mike, son))
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To: Mr Rogers
GWB's current plan is to build strong security forces, including police, army and special forces.

As well as a strong infrastructure.
20 posted on 09/01/2006 11:17:27 AM PDT by bnelson44 (Proud parent of a tanker! (Charlie Mike, son))
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