``There is disagreement on how best to extract the troops now that there is no alternative police authority in the country, since exit now could easily lead to a bloodbath. Trying to minimize that bloodbath is not some gimmick but a pretty legitimate debate...'' Nathan Newman
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It occurred to me that this kind of `best' withdrawal strategy and crocodile tears for Iraq is a cover for a far more ominious possibility.
With virtually zero Iraqi support and with an ever increasing number of attacks against US forces, the US choices may not be staying the course and winning a stable Iraq or leaving while trying to minimize a bloodbath.
The choice might be: face total defeat or get out now. How about them apples?
Since the basic thrust of Murtha's speech was about saving the US military, it sounded like Murtha was having Vietnam deja vu---which I read as a recognition that this war is not only unwinnable, but it is getting dangerously worse.
The longer we stay, the more casualities we will suffer only to put off the day when we leave under even worse conditions.
Here's what Murtha said: ``The future of our military is at risk. Our military and their families are stretched thin. Many say that the Army is broken. Some of our troops are on their third deployment...''
Read between the lines. It's a distinct possibility the US is on the road to a military collapse in the field.
A military collapse doesn't mean running out of ammunition. It means that the psychological state of the troops and the conditions they encounter have become so poor they are ineffective in offensive operations and assume a defensive position. That must be what Murtha saw.
(I wrote the above before I read this): ``We can lose in Iraq and destroy our Army, or we can just lose." (Paul Krugman, Time to Leave, 21 November 2005...''
Any day sometime soon, maybe next week the blame game will start about `not standing tall' and `four square' behind `our boys'----blah, blah, blah. Once we're out, the `spit on our troops' stories will start. A whole cottage industry will spring up proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that we could have `saved Iraq'--- all paving the way for next time. Old men will tell their grandchildren America was great back in ought-three when we `stood' for something. Every couple of years a saccrine news special report will drag out some hapless cripple with metals from the VA home and we'll go through it all over again. Nice young college girls with a tear in their eye will wonder what dad or mom who went to Iraq and ate an IED was really like.... A Diane Sawyer clone will look at the family album on 60 Minutes and the completely pickeled corpse of Dan Rather who took Andy Rooney's place will offer bits of wisdom about war from his respirator...
Jesus fucking christ. Have we seen this movie before or what?
Get out now...
CG