On Mon, 11 May 2009 21:33:55 -0400 Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
writes:
>
> On May 11, 2009, at 9:23 PM, Michael Pollak wrote:
>
> > Bush's decision to launch a surge of forces in Iraq was less a
> > military event than a psychological one. Militarily, the quantity
> of
> > forces to be inserted -- some 30,000 on top of a force of 120,000
> --
> > did not change the basic metrics of war in a country of about 29
>
> > million. Moreover, the insertion of additional troops was far from
> a
> > surge; they trickled in over many months. Psychologically,
> however,
> > it was stunning. Rather than commence withdrawals as so many
> > expected, the United States was actually increasing its forces.
>
> That, plus lots of bribe money.
The only surprising thing about that is that they didn't think of doing that a lot earlier.
The decision to disband Saddan Hussein's army had to have been one of the dumbest of the many dumb decisions that the Bushies made. It would have been a lot cheaper, in terms of blood and treasure, to have put those people on the US payroll after the fall of Baghdad, instead of having them around fighting US troops afterwards for several years, and then putting them on the payroll.
Jim F.
>
> Doug
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
>
____________________________________________________________ Digital Photography - Click Now. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTDvmT511jv7JmWP3MzHzDl0KOkkTRdLoO62BaOHxmASDloaLJkEzG/