Gen. David Petraeus and his report
I have come to a conclusion- If General Petraeus says that we are making progress in Iraq, we are probably making progress in Iraq. Military progress.
Which is a good thing. We have at least SOME of the country under control. Not all of it, but perhaps as best as we are going to be able to do as an occupying force. I trust what Petraeus is as good as we are going to get from the pentagon no matter who leads the country.
This general is not going to put his reputation on the line for some shill political line. His “report” may be bullshit, but I trust what he says in front of the committees.
But what I see the most here is this: Politically, Iraq isn’t going anywhere. If we leave there won’t be any government to take our place. Until there is a government sectarian violence will continue at such a rate that there is no way that American forces could keep up.
So we really have some choices: Start bringing troops home and force the government in Iraq to sink-or-swim, or stick around and pray that democracy becomes something of a reality.
We can’t just leave. For two reasons: You can’t just up and move 130,000+ people out of any one spot overnight. And can we really say “fuck you all” to the Iraqi citizens? American troops are going to die no matter what, but the cost in lives of Iraqi civilians will be just unacceptable.
What a quagmire
September 16th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
There was one sentence from the testimony of Gen. Petraeus that stood out for me: “I’m as frustrated about this as everyone else.”
As you have described, the military gains made during the surge are simply unsustainable without a political solution.
We can’t maintain the status quo for obvious reasons and moral responsibility forbids us from just suddenly leaving. I think we should start looking at options like dividing up Iraq and even redrawing some of the borders of the Middle East to achieve more ethnic and religious stability. Yes, the task would be daunting but it has been done before many times. The former Yugoslavia is a very recent and successful example. A key aspect to the current map is that was crudely drawn by long-dead British and French officials after WWI. This time around, it could be done right in the interest of long-term peace and prosperity.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Yes, but how do you divide up baghdad?
I like the idea of a federalist Iraq though.