Posted on 08/23/2004 11:11:29 AM PDT by edweena
In an interview earlier this month, multinational corps commander Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz admitted, "As much as I would love the Iraqis to love me, and my doctrine tells me I want to win the hearts and minds, I know I'm not going to do that."
He's right. But few of his superiors seem to have accepted that reality.
Rather, as recent events in Najaf reveal, military operations in Iraq continue to fall between two levels, destructive enough to provoke Iraqi resistance but not ruthless enough to suppress it.
Instead, we continue to play at making war, sacrificing both our own and Iraqi lives to the so-far-vain hope that military self-restraint will promote civility among people who historically have evinced little even among themselves.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Eight years of a passive, pacifistic, PC military, populated by Perfumed Princes, witha ZERO DEFECT mentality, is what is holding us back. With institutions like DACOWITS and programs like CO-ED BOOT CAMP and COOT (Consideration of Other's Training) NO ONE has time for that thing we once called WARRIOR TRAINING.
Folks, the bill is now due.
Most of the MSM declared our mission in Iraq to be a failure about 24 hours after the troops started rolling out of Kuwait, and they haven't changed their tune since then. They're like a stopped clock, always telling the same story of failure over and over. The WP is among the worst culprits.
Some will say they're tale of failure is correct. I won't accept that message from the MSM.
Man, I really hate it when someone in the Washington Post is right.
ping
You hungry?
"There are some [Iraqi's] that are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly. Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send. As for the others, I expect you to rock their world. But if you are ferocious in battle, remember to be magnanimous in victory".
Lt. Col. Tim Collins, Royal Irish Regiment.
Yes. We are being killed with kindness. Our own.
What, is this guy The Post's token sane man?
Then Powell ordered Schartzkopf to negotiate a cease fire. But neither the White House or the Pentagon instructed Schwartzkopf on the terms of the ceasefire. Iraq's generals insisted on the right to fly their helicopters into regions where the Kurds (and others) were engaged in rebellion. Then the Iraqis asked for the right to fly their armed helicopters into the areas defined. Schwartzkopf agreed.
End result: Damn Saddam brutally put down the rebellion and thousands of Iraqis and Kurds were slaughted. This was after Bush I had openly engouraged the Kurds and other Iraqis to fight against Saddam.
Powell and Bush I were reponsible for leaving Iraq under the domination of a brutal, repressive regime (worse than the Nazis). You all know what happened after the Gulf War and why it was necessary to invade recently.
You can see a very good but long video history of the Gulf War put together with interviews of they key players and historic film clips. PBS videos are available at most public libraries.
My biggest problem with the White House is that they are not talking about Saddam's stockpiled WMD's which were smuggled out of Iraq to Syria. Syria is the birthplace of brutal, repressive Bath Party. How many of Saddam's WMD's have been given to al Qaeda operatives in the past year? No one knows and no one is talking about the problem. What will the White House say when these WMD's show up here?
I know what you mean. I couldn't believe it when I read it, and I was hoping the source wouldn't result in immediate flaming. :)
Interest is being compounded daily.
Sometimes ruthless is more merciful. Get it done, and get it over with. If you kill them slowly, you convince people that they might have a chance, and their friends and relatives get into the fray. Thus, at the end of the day, you wind up killing more because you wanted to be kind.
If you go quickly, and overwhelm them, they and everyone else can see that they have no chance, and the ones who can get out will get out and those who are already out will stay out. Thus, in the end, quick and violent is the greater mercy.
I really like this President and desperately want to see him get re-elected. At the same time, I'm seriously starting to wonder if the propensity for taking bad advice is some sort of genetic condition endemic in the Bush family. This nonsense that's going on over there is putting his re-election in real jeopardy when he should be a virtual shoo-in.
You can go here and read more about facts on ground in Najaf:
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com
This my worry. The Swift Boat stories are history, and most young people don't get it. But they are living through the Iraq war, and this Najaf situation is killing and wounding our soldiers while we hang back. We didn't want our soldiers under UN command, but now they seem to be under Iraqi command, and we're not seeing progress.
Another poster commented that ruthlessness can be kinder in the long run. I'm reminded of the guy who tried to be kind to his dog by docking its tail an inch at at time instead of doing it in one quick cut.
Wincefully effective metaphor.
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