Wow. Here I thought the mission was to get those WMDs. Seriously though. That's a somewhat better articulation of out policy there than I have seen from the administration. It might even be kinda what they are trying to say.
The problem though, is that it isn't working. If you see reporting from Iraq from Arabic speakers, it says that the various political parties find it expedient to blame the Americans for the current mess. I am thinking especially of a couple articles that have been in Time recently. Ok, well, we did break it... but until someone is willing to make actual reality-based choices in the Iraqi govrenment, rather than just talk about the Americans, nothing will be accomplished. In other words, our presence there is not helping, it is enabling dysfunctional behavior. They like having soldiers to help keep the peace, but find it politically safer to blame the Americans than to try to solve difficult and emotional problems. Like what to do about ex-Basthists. >We are not going to "win" in the sense that you seem to be indicating. That >is not our mission. Our mission is to help the Iraqi government provide >security and re-build infrastructure, hunt down Al Qaeda and Baathist >dead-enders, and curtail sectarian violence. Ultimately, our mission is to >help the Iraqis reach a political settlement among the Shiites, Sunnis, and >Kurds that leads to a unified nation that can defend its own borders and >provide security for its people. > >The reason we see all the talk about benchmarks for the Iraqis is that lots >of folks don't think the Iraqis are up to the job, and they want the US to >bail out if the Iraqis can't get their act together. That isn't a realistic >option. We need to keep at it with the Iraqis until they can figure out how >to reach a political settlement. It will not take forever, and we will not >be there forever. By all appearances, it could take several more years due >to the total lack of commitment by the government to getting any >constitutional reform done. The downside of the lack of progress for us is >that we continue to lose soldiers and spend billions of dollars. As great a >price in blood and treasure as we are paying, the downside for Iraqis is far >greater. Iraqi citizens are losing their lives by the hundreds every week in >sectarian killings and terrorist bombings. None of that will change until >they reach a political settlement, and at this point we have to stick it out >and push them toward a settlement or be prepared for the entire region to >descend into war. Our best option today is to help get the Iraqis to a >political settlement, get everyone on board supporting the government, and >get the government behind the idea of treating everyone equally, whether >they were a Baathist or not. Maybe they can have a South Africa style Truth >commission. Whatever they do, they all have to be on board. Once that >happens, we can start to leave, because our primary mission will have been >finished. > >We might still have people there for years doing various things, just like >we have people all around the world, but nothing like the footprint we have >today. > >On 5/8/07, Rick wrote: >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Macromedia ColdFusion MX7 Upgrade to MX7 & experience time-saving features, more productivity. http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion?sdid=RVJW Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:234193 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
