Posted on 06/15/2008 12:10:10 PM PDT by Tennessean4Bush
Iraq War mistake #3281 -— Sadr’s existence.
Sadr has proven time and again to be, unwittingly of course, our greatest ally in the fight against his own Mahdi army. I am not sure we would have so easily defeated them without his help.
Yes, this is further evidence.
BUMP-TO-THE-TOP!
Our efforts there will go down in history
and yes, my FRiend, this is VICTORY.
Only needs to be preserved by a leader with the guts to seal it.
Because we have not yet made the political gains that need to be made as a result of the military victory.
The political gains need to be made ... in the United States of America.
Sure looks like it. I look forward to seeing peaceful Iraq next month.
And we must never forget that to achieve victory, our troops and the coalition have also had to defeat the media and the Democrats.
That's going to bite you in the butt as well, Mookie. You'll never learn, will you?
Perhaps, but all that needs to happen is for Bush, Petraeus, or even Maliki to declare victory.
I think McCain might win in a landslide if he campaigned this summer leading up to the nomination, from Iraq. The press would have to follow him to every stop, and at every stop the heaviest un-stated question on everyone's mind would be "Where is Obama?"
McCain needs to campaign from Iraq.
McCain should tour Iraq in July with Maliki and jointly declare victory, and after that Petraeus can announce dramatic reductions in force.
I think the Democrats could get it handed to them if the GOP would just show a little courage and campaign from Iraq. The message: Obama, by his own admission, would have lost this war.
You are as wrong there as it is possible to be.
There seems to be a desperation around here to cling to ignorance of how Counter Insurgency differs from Conventional War. This is one of the political aspects of the problem that Conventional Military thinkers find so hard to deal with.
For example Al Sadr. Al Sadr is a clever little thug. He walks right up to the line but he does not cross it. He is typical of the sorts of messy little problems that crop up in a Counter Insurgency. NOT exactly an enemy not exactly an ally. So how you deal with him is troublesome.
Since Malki and Al Sadr are both Shia, Malki cannot squish him without splitting his own power base. So he keeps trying to negotiate with the twit. Frankly, I think with the terrorists mostly broken now is the time to finish breaking the militias.
Unfortunately as usual the Arab way kicks in again. Talk,talk,talk,talk,talk,talk and more talk. Someone needs to sit Maliki down and speak truth to him.
Here how Counter Insurgency done the Dinocon way would look.
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Americans: Yo, all you Iraqis. Now we know you all have been oppressed and terrorized by Saddam and his goons for about 40 years so we came over here to show you a better way. So gather round and we are going to teach you this thing called Democracy. We want to teach you this cause we figure if we get can get enough of you following this ideology you will not follow the ideology that preaches it is a good thing to fly airplanes into buildings full of our Civilians.
Now the first things you need to learn is this part about the Rule of Law. Study the sub chapters on Innocent until prove Guilty, Trial by Jury, Right to Legal Representation and really important, the chapter on outlawing Cruel and Unusual Punishment. Ok, now while you do that, we are going to arbitrarily round up and kill any Iraqis who we think maybe have ever talked mean about us.
What? No we are not going to bother with any of that messy Democracy stuff cause we are at war. And according to our Holloweird Movie guide to Military Action flicks any time you are at war you can waste anyone who pisses you off for what ever reason you want any way you want to do it. According to Hollyweird, we dont need nothing like proof or nothing we can just go wack that little Al Sadr freak cause he pisses us off. Evidence? We dont need no stinkin evidence. Our action movie heros never bother with any evidence. In the Movie we watch on TV says we are just suppose to go kill him because he pisses us off so that what we want to do here. Now quit talking back and learn our lessons on Democracy.
Iraqi 1. Hey Mahmoud, why are we helping these clowns?
Iraqi 2. What do you mean Achmed, they got rid of Saddam!
Iraqi 1. They did? Looks to me like they just took his place.
Iraqi 2. Well ya so?
Iraqi 1. Well at least the old thugs were from around here. These guys are not only from out of town they are not even Muslims. We may has well have Muslim thugs if we got to have thugs.
Iraqi 2. You right, time to join the Jihad!
That is what this Counter Insurgency doctrine as learned from watching TV dramas would produce. It would of been utter stupidity for the US to follow the macho boy tactics as advocated by the Internet warriors and the Never been talking heads.
It will never happen, it's just his blustering. Everyone knows he is finished. Even if he hadn't declared this he was headed to certain humiliation at the polls. He has lost his constituency. Just as al Qaeda lost their Sunni constituency, he has lost his Shia following. The war is won. This is the closest you will get to a surrender. Bush has outlasted everyone. The greatest fighting force in the history of warfare, composed of the bravest, most intelligent, most compassionate, and most professional soldiers in history have done what hardly anyone expected they could do. The war is won!
That scenario would be absolutely perfect.
They should put a "Mission Accomplished" banner in the background, too.
If McCain went to Iraq for a month and everywhere he went declared victory it would totally emasculate and humiliate Obama. I mean, what could Obama say? Think of the interviews they could conduct with ordinary Iraqis, Iraqi military, the Sons of Iraq. They would all say, thank you so very much for helping us and not abandoning us, and could you leave as soon as possible. McCain could look at the camera and say “If I am elected President, that is what we will do. And because we didn’t abandon Iraq like Obama wanted to do we will be coming home as victors with a stable ally right in the heart of the Middle East.”
Yes! Perfect! But not as perfect as hanging it at the GOP convention as well. Wouldn't that make their heads explode at the DNC?
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