Posted on 02/28/2007 4:55:36 PM PST by Sub-Driver
US commanders admit: we face a Vietnam-style collapse
Elite officers in Iraq fear low morale, lack of troops and loss of political will
Simon Tisdall Thursday March 1, 2007 The Guardian
An elite team of officers advising the US commander, General David Petraeus, in Baghdad has concluded that they have six months to win the war in Iraq - or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat. The officers - combat veterans who are experts in counter-insurgency - are charged with implementing the "new way forward" strategy announced by George Bush on January 10. The plan includes a controversial "surge" of 21,500 additional American troops to establish security in the Iraqi capital and Anbar province.
But the team, known as the "Baghdad brains trust" and ensconced in the heavily fortified Green Zone, is struggling to overcome a range of entrenched problems in what has become a race against time, according to a former senior administration official familiar with their deliberations.
"They know they are operating under a clock. They know they are going to hear a lot more talk in Washington about 'Plan B' by the autumn - meaning withdrawal. They know the next six-month period is their opportunity. And they say it's getting harder every day," he said.
By improving security, the plan's short-term aim is to create time and space for the Iraqi government to bring rival Shia, Sunni and Kurd factions together in a process of national reconciliation, American officials say. If that works within the stipulated timeframe, longer term schemes for rebuilding Iraq under the so-called "go long" strategy will be set in motion.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
unnamed sources...
the usual BS
I can smell the BS from here.
From one of the most far-left and anti-USA tabloids in a country full of them.
The guardian is a disgusting little rag.
Well...maybe.
Note that despite the spin being put on it, that the real issue is not Baghdad or Iraq...it's the politics at home that are the issue...as in Vietnam.
Well, since the Democrats are in the majority, and their leadership has said they are doing what they can to make this another Vietnam, our military would be daft not to see the possibility of it coming about.
Note the fear that there will be a "lack of troops". Nobody fears we will send too many more troops off "to die for a lost cause".
Who says the Democrats and their doppelgangers in the MSM can NOT brain wash the masses?
Well-I do think we need to show some solid improvement within 6 months. If things go south from here, people will not continue supporting this...not that I agree-it's just reality...we don't like losing wars.
Did Vietnam ever have an oil deal?
THIS is why we need a declaration of war BEFORE any use of troops is authorized. To allow open debate on the morality, strategies, or duration of a war while our troops are in the field is a recipe for disaster.
The president should have gone to Congress on September 12 with a declaration of war against Iraq and Afghanistan. If he had, we could have simply censored all news of Iraq, allowing our forces to have done what they needed to have done to destroy all opposition in those countries. They could have blasted the Taliban out of their caves with napalm, installed a MacArthur style occupation regime in Iraq, and simply shot anyone who caused any trouble. The US commander could have established a 100-mile-wide cordon sanitare around the borders of Iraq and killed anyone crossing it without authorization, thus shutting down the Iranian and Syrian enablers. Our forces could have sealed each Iraqi city in turn, rousting the population from their homes and forcing them to pass through search-and-arrest checkpoints, thus weeding out the "insurgents" in each village. Baghdad could have been evacuated neighborhood by neighborhood in like manner, then bombed and bulldozed flat, thus breaking the will to resist of the ethnic militias; Sunni and Shiite militia leaders could then have been rounded up, tried by military tribunals, then shot, nipping the militia problem in the bud. And the Kurds could have been allowed to form an independent state, giving our forces a secure base for future operations.
Instead, we have another quasi-war -- and another mess to clean up.
Can Gen. Petraeus do it? I hope he can. But no matter how good our forces are, and how great the leaders we give them, there's always the Congress standing behind them, ever ready to yank the rug out from under them should the politcal heat from the TV-addled masses get too hot.
Coulda, shoulda, woulda. As long as our forces operate at the whim of the political class, nothing -- least of all victory -- can be certain.
The U.S. hasn't fought a war like that since 1945, and I knew even on the morning of 9/11/01 that it wouldn't do it again in this case.
Amen to that. We haven't had an out-and-out win since WWII. And I chalk it partly up to politicians being able to convince people over time that it's not a real war or it's unjust, etc.
This war may turn into Vietnam, but it's not Bush's fault, or Rumsfeld's fault, or the military' fault. It's the Democrats fault (along with weak-kneed Republicans who voted for the non-binding resolution) and the media's fault.
SHOUT IT OUT PEOPLE
THE DEMOCRATS HAVE KILLED OFF THE MILITARY'S MORALE
Don't kid yourself.
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