From today's
New York Times:
"The American military command in Iraq is now willing to back a temporary increase in American troops in Baghdad as part of a broader Iraqi and United States effort to stem the slide toward chaos, senior American officials said Saturday.
Until recently, the top ground commander in Iraq, Gen.
George W. Casey Jr., has argued that sending more American forces into Baghdad and Anbar Province, the two most violent regions of Iraq, would increase the Iraqi dependency on Washington, and in the words of one senior official, “make this feel more like an occupation.”"
Casey in
December 2005:
"As I’ve said before this is not a conventional war, and in this type of war that we’re fighting, more is not necessarily better. In fact,
in Iraq, less coalition at this point in time, is better. Less is better because it doesn’t feed the notion of occupation, it doesn’t work the culture of dependency, it doesn’t lengthen the time for Iraqi forces to be self-reliant, and it doesn’t expose coalition forces to risk when there are Iraqi forces who are capable of standing up and doing it."
Only a week ago there were rumors that Casey, Joint Chiefs Chairman
General Peter Pace and other generals and admirals might be replaced as part of the effort of incoming Defense Secretary Robert Gates to improve morale throughout the military and change course in Iraq. Suddenly, they're on board with a Bush policy they previously recommended against. Coincidence? I think not.
Bush and those in his administration just refuses to listen. Elections don't matter, advice from his military leaders doesn't matter, the opinions of Congressional leaders don't matter. They started a discretionary war in Iraq and lied to do it, and they refuse to admit their policy is not working and will not work. They refuse to change the policy or end American intervention in Iraq. They refuse to do the first thing required of any military operation -- DEFINE SUCCESS -- communicate the desired end state so the military will recognize and achieve what's being asked of it. And the best we can do for senior level commanders in the military is spineless cowards who don't have the courage of their convictions?
It's a goddamned disgrace that suck ups and sycophants like Casey and
Schoomaker and Pace and
Myers have achieved the top positions in the American military
while real leaders like John
Batiste and and Paul
Eaton and
others believe they have to l
eave the military so they can speak their minds.
Americans and Iraqis will continue be killed over a failed policy in Iraq that never should have been implemented in the first place and George Casey has rolled over for an administration that's operating in bad faith. He ought to be ashamed of himself.
