President Bush, defending an unpopular war, ordered gradual reductions in U.S. forces in Iraq on Thursday night and said, “The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home.”
Yet, Bush firmly rejected calls to end the war, insisting that Iraq will still need military, economic and political support from Washington after his presidency ends.
Bush said that 5,700 U.S. forces would be home by Christmas and that four brigades – for a total of at least 21,500 troops – would return by July, along with an undetermined number of support forces. Now at its highest level of the war, the U.S. troop strength stands at 168,000.
“The principle guiding my decisions on troop levels in Iraq is: return on success,” the president said, trying to summon the nation’s resolve once again to help Iraq “defeat those who threaten its future and also threaten ours.”
While I am grateful for the minimal step towards a sane troop deployment in Iraq, it is clear that Mr. Bush is simply stalling to hand off this failure of policy to the next President. Not only incompetent, but irresponsible.
Declare mission accomplished and bring them all home!
Bob and Roy,
Surrender is not an option. Sure, we could bring them all
home so that they could fight off the terrorists in the
streets of America.
So … the answer from the left is … clear out of Iraq and turn it over to Iran?
Md Brian
My nephew has spent two of the last three years in Iraq (he voluntered for his third deployment). Here are some of his observations from yesterday’s e-mail.
“In my opinion, the increase in troop levels is showing some concrete results after several months of hard work by all over here. However, the greatest successes may be attributable to the local populace finally taking some ownership and interest in the future of their country. By finally realizing that foreign fighters and radical nationals are not working for the greater good of the nation of Iraq, but rather are focused on discriminative and oppressive religious ideology, it is quickly becoming enough is enough.
There will be difficult times ahead and who is to say when this will come to an end. It would be disastrous to pull support (both fiscal and military) too quickly and watch the gains made in the past several months (and years, for that matter) evaporate into an absolute state of chaos. “
Placing the U.S. military in the role of policing a civil war makes no sense. We have been at a place of having to choose the least worst option for some time – either:
a partition, recognizing that the modern myth of a unified Iraq no longer exists
or
containment – secure the borders, allow the insurgents to fight it out
I’d remind #3&4;that many of the l;eft & right have argued for 3 years now that deploying troops back to Afghanistan (and even Pakistan) to fight the terrorist where they are (rather than where we have taken them) is a critical mission.
Wait…I thought it was bad to announce plans like this because it tips our hand to the enemy. Did that change, or is this different?
Jeff,
You KNOW the left will say your son was FORCED to write this, that it takes a ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ to accept HIS word over that of the more enlightened Democrats who have never seen combat, nor ever trusted the military. 🙁
Jeff, trust me – respect for those in the military is the domain of any party or political POV.
libraryjim, I am curious – when you say those that have never seen combat, nor ever trusted the military – who in the Bush Regime does NOT fit that definition ? Bush ? Cheney ? Condi ?
From my POV, Gates & Petraeus are solid folks executing under a failed overall strategy.
Bob, is there ANY strategy other than abject surrender and abandoning the Iraqis to the mercy of Iranian thugs that you’d endorse?
Robert Dedmon,
“Surrender is not an option. Sure, we could bring them all
home so that they could fight off the terrorists in the
streets of America.”
Turn off Fox News, get out of your La-z-Boy, pump some steel, get your CCP and a good .45, and fight them yourself, coward. Do you actually think about what you write?
All,
Iran is already in Iraq. We deposed a Sunni regime previously allied with the US against Iran and a counterweight to the Wahhabists on the Saudi peninsula. Now, we have Shia Muslim militias allied with Iran and Wahhabist terrorists in Iraq. There is nothing that can change this situation. We will just have to deal with the devil we know. We should also pay the Sunnis and the Mahdi Army for every Wahhabist they string up.
Bbo,
Bush served. I don’t know about Cheney, but I do know that Hillary and her husband worked very hard to cut down our military while they were in office, and she has shown nothing but contempt for those in uniform during that time and since then, even to the point of not allowing the Marine Guard at the White House to be in uniform while on duty.
The others who shamelessly called Petraeus a liar (using euphimisms, of course) showed similar contempt during the last few days, and people like Harry Reid and Charles Schumer saying we’ve ‘lost already’ and need to get out simply prove my point. Not to mention John Kerry making a fool of himself by anwering Bin Laden “hey, we don’t have the sixty votes, give us time!” when asked about the tape and OBL’s accusation that the Democrats haven’t done enough to stop the war.
As testimony from Jeff’s son and many, MANY others IN Iraq have shown, we have not lost and are in fact on the way to winning big time. The biggest obstacle is not the presence of Iran and Syria by proxy in Iraq, but rather getting the Iraqi’s own governing body up to steam. It will be done. With our without the Democratic Party’s cooperation. It’s too important an issue to just raise the white flag and pull out now.
By the way, did you hear OBL say that the only way he will quit is if the US converts to Islam or dies? Nice people we are dealing with here. And the special mention of beheading Brittany and Madonna! After Brittany’s ‘come back’ he doesn’t have to worry about either one, they will fade away on their own.
Jim
Reactionary,
[i] pump some steel, get your CCP and a good .45, and fight them yourself[/i]
That may well be our only option if we leave Iraq before the job is done. Hope you have a gun or two of your own. This enemy won’t be pacified by ‘nice talk’. They are in a kill or be killed mindset, and nothing short of total capitulation and conversion to Islamic fundamentalism will sway them.
jim,
If I see a terrorist, I’ll be sure and shoot them. Really, what Americans should do is just commit a crime so they can go to prison. They’ll have a roof over their heads, three meals a day, medical care, and they’ll be safe from terrsts.
No, I’m saying that if we pull out of Iraq now, the war will ([b]WILL[/b]) come to the streets of the United States. And we will then have a choice: fight, surrender and convert, or die.
The discussion on Christians and non-violent resistance (i.e., martyrdom) needs to begin in ernest now, before that time comes, esp: on defense of neighbor and family against the tyrrany of the heathen.
Although, it’s funny you should mention that. My dad has often joked that if he’s diagnosed with an incurable disease, he will go out and rob a bank, surrendering to the police immediately so he can get sent to prison for the free health care. 🙄
jim,
I will grant you this: there weren’t any people in Iraq with an axe to grind for us before; there are now. Remember the young Iraqi boy who had his limbs blown off by a US bomb? He lives in Britain now and the last time they interviewed him, he said he hoped the people who had done that to him would all die. The media doesn’t interview him any more.
Meanwhile, al-Qaida’s financiers in Saudi Arabia and its members in Pakistan, Morocco, Egypt, etc. bide their time.
Also, could you explain to me the connection between pulling out of Iraq and jihad on the streets of America?
Quite frankly, a society that even allows such an invasion deserves to fall. I suppose if it happens, it will be because the military is too busy guarding other nations’ borders.
perceived weakness: “All we have to do is bide our time and the popular opinion will go against military action, and we can move in at any time, anywhere.” “Americans won’t finish a job — they left Sadaam in the first war, too afraid to go after him, and now they leave the second time, unwilling to pursue the cause to the end!”
Right now, and Al-Q says this themselves, the battle in Iraq is the main battle ground FOR Al-Q. This is from their own PR. We leave, we give them a victory and they feel they can come after us on our own soil again, bigger and badder next time.