Peeling the Onion
11/21/06 13:02
Last week General John P. Abizaid, supreme commander
of the emperor's forces in the middle East, told
Congress that we needed more troops in Iraq, but he
said the troops we need are Iraqi troops.
Today's Washington Post has this article which suggests to me
that the Joint Chiefs of Staff don't watch
C-SPAN.
Most recently, a closely guarded military review being done for the Joint Chiefs of Staff laid out three options for Iraq. It appears to be favoring a version of one option called "Go Long" that would temporarily boost the U.S. troop level -- currently about 140,000 -- but over time would cut combat presence in favor of training and advising. The training effort could take five to 10 years.
Wait a minute. The American people have turned against the invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation. The commander-in-chief responds by expanding the war effort. Meanwhile, the preznit has been visiting Vietnam for the past few days. That crash you heard was irony grabbing it's chest and falling over dead. I hate it when I'm right about what dubya will do next, but I smelled this one coming. Note the 5 to 10 year projection. That pushes the resolution of these plans off on subsequent presidents. As far as he's concerned, it's war without end, amen. This guy is going to stay the course right up until noon on January 20th, 2009. Then he's going to haul ass for Crawford, Texas to cry about his legacy and spend a lot of time taking shots at whatever the adults in the next administration decide to do to clean up the mess.
The WaPo article has some good info on some of the major problems we've been having with the training of Iraqi forces. Things like insurgent infiltration, supply problems and a serious shortage of qualified interpreters. We've been training for 3 and a half years with substandard interpreters. I bet that's not very effective. I wonder how that could be allowed to happen?
Despite its central role in Iraq, the training and advisory program is not well understood outside narrow military circles. Congress has hardly examined it, and training efforts lie outside the purview of the special inspector general on Iraq reconstruction. The Army has done some studies but has not released them. Even basic information, such as how many of the 5,000 U.S. military personnel involved are from the National Guard and Reserves, is unusually difficult to obtain.
And there it is. If you don't know what you're doing, keep it secret. With Republican control of both houses of Congress, there has been virtually no oversight of this administration. They have been allowed to do pretty much as they pleased for the duration of this war. Hopefully that's about to change. When the Dems take over in January, if they have any balls, I should get to see a lot of hearings with a lot of senior officials getting called on the carpet. They've been able to hide their lack of progress behind bogus security classifications and flag-waving false patriotism for too long. I'm betting that when it all comes to light, the layers of corruption and incompetence will be staggering.
Most recently, a closely guarded military review being done for the Joint Chiefs of Staff laid out three options for Iraq. It appears to be favoring a version of one option called "Go Long" that would temporarily boost the U.S. troop level -- currently about 140,000 -- but over time would cut combat presence in favor of training and advising. The training effort could take five to 10 years.
Wait a minute. The American people have turned against the invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation. The commander-in-chief responds by expanding the war effort. Meanwhile, the preznit has been visiting Vietnam for the past few days. That crash you heard was irony grabbing it's chest and falling over dead. I hate it when I'm right about what dubya will do next, but I smelled this one coming. Note the 5 to 10 year projection. That pushes the resolution of these plans off on subsequent presidents. As far as he's concerned, it's war without end, amen. This guy is going to stay the course right up until noon on January 20th, 2009. Then he's going to haul ass for Crawford, Texas to cry about his legacy and spend a lot of time taking shots at whatever the adults in the next administration decide to do to clean up the mess.
The WaPo article has some good info on some of the major problems we've been having with the training of Iraqi forces. Things like insurgent infiltration, supply problems and a serious shortage of qualified interpreters. We've been training for 3 and a half years with substandard interpreters. I bet that's not very effective. I wonder how that could be allowed to happen?
Despite its central role in Iraq, the training and advisory program is not well understood outside narrow military circles. Congress has hardly examined it, and training efforts lie outside the purview of the special inspector general on Iraq reconstruction. The Army has done some studies but has not released them. Even basic information, such as how many of the 5,000 U.S. military personnel involved are from the National Guard and Reserves, is unusually difficult to obtain.
And there it is. If you don't know what you're doing, keep it secret. With Republican control of both houses of Congress, there has been virtually no oversight of this administration. They have been allowed to do pretty much as they pleased for the duration of this war. Hopefully that's about to change. When the Dems take over in January, if they have any balls, I should get to see a lot of hearings with a lot of senior officials getting called on the carpet. They've been able to hide their lack of progress behind bogus security classifications and flag-waving false patriotism for too long. I'm betting that when it all comes to light, the layers of corruption and incompetence will be staggering.
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