Posted on 10/26/2006 5:14:16 AM PDT by beckaz
IT WAS wrenching to listen to President Bush's news conference yesterday. He's struggling to do the right thing. But he's getting terrible advice.
He's still counting on a political solution in Iraq. Ain't going to happen. And you can take that to the blood bank.
Our famously loyal president has one grave flaw: He's a poor judge of character. He trusts the wrong people. Then he sticks by them.
Bush met Russia's Vladimir Putin, "looked into his soul" - and failed to recognize that the guy is an unreformed secret policeman. He stubbornly defends Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Pentagon's architect of failure. Now he's standing up for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki - a man who has decided to back our enemies.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Lastly, the most baffling thing to me: our side never points out that the SOB could not even be in Iraq today, he was hiding in Iran, before our intervention over there.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
No thanks.
Ah what ever happened thsoe bucolic days of WWII when we went in and softened up the populace with carpet bombing of cities with incendiary, turning those cities into firestorms of fear for the populace that remained alive....and in the end the survivors, the homeless refugees, were grateful to have us set them back up in a clean safe democracy.
WE ARE MUCH TOO EASY ON THESE PEOPLE.
There's a lot of truth in this article.
The Moqtada is Iran's Man in Baghdad. He has to go, then we have to Fight.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
I'm hoping Bush ditches Rumsfeld after the election. I can't see where he's done anything worthwhile in 6 years at the Pentagon.
"....Friendly persuasion and billions of dollars haven't done the job. Give therapeutic violence a chance....."
What a statement. And how cutting to the bone true.
US/Brit Forces should have pruned al-Sadr when they had the chance when al-Sadr was surrounded at that mosque in 2004.
Now, he continues to be a thorn.
He must be dealt with. He is funded by Tehran.
Peters is correct -- you can't have a politicial/diplomatic solution until you've won the war.
IT WAS wrenching to listen to President Bush's news conference yesterday. He's struggling to do the right thing. But he's getting terrible advice. He's still counting on a political solution in Iraq. Ain't going to happen. And you can take that to the blood bank. Our famously loyal president has one grave flaw: He's a poor judge of character. He trusts the wrong people. Then he sticks by them.
Harsh, but fair. President Bush likes to be a nice guy, but sometimes he's too nice to get the job done. President Lincoln was also a man of great character, but he had no qualms about firing his top people until he got the results he wanted.
Next, Peters talks about the release of al-Sadr's top assassin, facilitated by the Iraqi government.
As a former intelligence officer, that told me two things: First, Iraq's prime minister is betting on Muqtada to prevail, not us. Second, Muqtada, not the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is now the most powerful man in Iraq.
At his news conference, Bush was asked about another statement made by Maliki just hours before. Our troops had conducted a raid in Sadr City, Muqtada's Baghdad stronghold. The Iraqi PM quickly declared that "this will not happen again." He was signaling his allegiance to Muqtada. Publicly.
Oh, Maliki realizes his government wouldn't last a week if our troops withdrew. He doesn't want us to leave yet. But he's looking ahead.
This is exactly the point. Everyone can see the handwriting on the wall. America may be fantastically powerful, but we're deeply unreliable. Al-Sadr may not be nearly as strong, but he's as dependable as the sunrise. He will be here tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.
If we fail to kill him, Al-Sadr will be the future of Iraq. We'll be as tired of looking at him in 2050 as we are looking at Fidel Castro now. He'll be every ounce the thorn in our side as Castro or Saddam was. All he has to do is wait.
And after we've killed Muqtada and destroyed his Mahdi Army, we need to go after the Sunni insurgents. If we can't leave a democracy behind, we should at least leave the corpses of our enemies.
The holier-than-thou response to this proposal is predictable: "We can't kill our way out of this situation!" Well, boo-hoo. Friendly persuasion and billions of dollars haven't done the job. Give therapeutic violence a chance.
I don't really think this point requires any elaboration. I fear it may be too late in the game to pull the gloves off. We're already pretty gunshy of bad PR. In a perfect world, this makes sense. In the politically weak kneed 2006 we find ourselves in, seeing this option is unlikely, at best.
"Give violence a chance!"
"Get Tough or Get Out!"
Good comments.
We should have taken out al Sadr during the 2003 Fallujah fracas. Why we let him live to rabble-rouse and foment more fanatical killing I don't understand. But it's not too late to correct the mistake! He's just begging for a bullet in the head.
Ralph Peters seems to have a personal animus against Don Rumsfeld - it's found throughout his books and in his news pieces.
That makes a great tagline too!
I agree, but don't hold your breath. President Bush is not only loyal to his guys, but he's sensitive to what the press would say. Many people who know more about politics than military affairs, like may FReepers, see criticism of SecDef Rumsfeld as criticism of the President, and hence not to be taken seriously. In fact, they belive that Rumsfeld leaving would be a serious political blow to the Republicans.
In any other scenario, where military victories was more important than political ones, SecDef Rumsfeld would have long since been replaced. As I mentioned earlier, President Lincoln would have replaced him years ago. For political and personal reasons, Rummy's got his job as long as President Bush has his.
"Ah what ever happened thsoe bucolic days of WWII....."
Imagine CNN covering Dresden. That's what happened. Or for that matter, Reuters covering Beirut this past summer?
Great piece by Peters..... Hope our strategists are listening.
He clearly does. But Peters is absolutely right about the need to get rid of fat-boy al-Sadr. The sooner and the less obviously the better. As I said before, grab him and make him disappear. No body, no martyr, just vanished.
I don't disagree with you. Moqtada will be dead. Iraq will stand.
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