Getting the Lowdown on Iraq

If the Repulblican Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee wants to get a second opinion on how the war in Iraq is going, where does he turn? To the Pentagon, but not to the top brass this time. In an unusual closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill last week, Virginia's John Warner, joined by Democratic Senators Carl Levin of Michigan and Mark Dayton of Minnesota, sat across the table from 10 military officers chosen for their experience on the battlefield rather than in the political arena. Warner rounded up the battalion commanders to get at what the military calls "ground truth"--the unvarnished story of what's going on in Iraq.

"We wanted the view from men who had been on the tip of the spear, and we got it," said John Ullyot, a Warner spokesman who declined to comment on what was said at the meeting but confirmed that some Capitol Hill staff members were also present. According to two sources with knowledge of the meeting, the Army and Marine officers were blunt. In contrast to the Pentagon's stock answer that there are enough troops on the ground in Iraq, the commanders said that they not only needed more manpower but also had repeatedly asked for it. Indeed, military sources told TIME that as recently as August 2005, a senior military official requested more troops but got turned down flat.

Actually, i wouldn't really call for the troops
to be brought home, unless they refused to "fire"
those responsible in the chain of command, and
Rumsfeld for refusing to alter his vision of
the '21st century military', that has allready
shown some serious flaws, to allow for our
troop levels/supplies/armor to be adequate to
the task. IF THE CHARGES ARE SUBSTANCIATED.

But if the charges of incompetant and neglectful
command are borne out, thern yes, either heads
should roll, or our troops should be pulled back
off the battlefield.

I am not one who thinks we are losing, or in
a Tiddy Kowardly "quagmire"...but that's not
what the insinuation is..the insinuation is,
that the amont of casualties we are incurring
is higher than they need or should be, because
Rumsfeld wants to force the view that his
"lighter, faster, less troops" military is
the model that the US should use to restructure
*all* of the divisions in the US military.

The point i referred to earlier being, that
during the seige on Al Sadr, and the first
assault on Fallujah, were much tougher than
they needed to be...the second attempts..we
brought back in some Mi-A1s and bradleys for
these urbanj combats, and we started kicking
serious terrorist ass again.

Sometimes there is just no substitute for
Heavy Armor/Mech even in Urban combat. Something
that Rumsfelds "new plan" apparently did not give
enough weight to.

Good morning.
"This better danm well be a lie."

I don't have lot of faith that a senile RINO and two DemocRATs will present an unbiased report of what cherry picked Colonels had to say in response to carefully written questions.

Warner needs to go. For that matter, there are several senators that need to go.

Michael Frazier

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