Changing of the guard in Washington – well some of them anyway

OK Nancy and Co, you got what you wanted, what are you going to do about the Iraq mess and all the money we borrowed? Remember there’s not a long honeymoon here. Make the same mistake as the last time around and your crowd will get to be the minority again.

In his Washpost opinion column William Arkin writes , “

A solid majority of voting Americans, according to both exit polls and the results, disapprove of the Iraq war and President Bush’s job performance, mostly due to his handling of national security.

The Democrats and the administration now need to work together to craft the safest possible withdrawal strategy”…more.

There are more Dems with a military background, such as, Retd. Vice Admiral Joe Sestak, Chris Carney, a Navy Reserve Intelligence officer and hopefully Jim Webb in the Senate to put some serious muscle in helping the Dems come up with an alternate plan and to be able to sell it.

I couldn’t help myself, I posted a comment in his blog,

“I hope the Dems take what you wrote to heart, they probably have a shorter shelf life than the Neocons who helped create this mess in Iraq and borrowing and spending more money like drunken sailors on shore leave.

I am with the couple of commenter who wrote calling the architects of the Iraq war to book, these people should be tried as war criminals. At a minimum they should never be allowed to work in Government again.

I also don’t have a whole lot of hope with the Dems, there’s probably only a hair’s breadth of difference between the two parties. I think its time for a third political party that works for all Americans instead of just the campaign donors, socially liberal, financially responsible and militarily less adventurous. Way way less adventurous.”

Iraq President “there’s no civil war, its only gangs and extremists”

Its only the extremists and gangs that are causing all the violence said President Jalal Talabani of Iraq at a conference in France.  AT the same time he said Iraq needed the American troops there for 3 years as opposed to the 18 months that was recently announced.

If its only gangs and extremists then the Iraqis should be able to handle it why do they need the Americans. Seems kind of contradictory. He also took a swipe at the countries that stayed on the sidelines such as his host, France, “Without this war, perhaps you wouldn’t see me here as President, but as a refugee.” Maybe he should have been a stand up comedian…

Another call for a draft

There is an interesting mini debate going on in WashPost columnist William M. Arkin’s blogpost on a draft. Among the usual neocon vs. right vs. left debate there was a post by a college kid who said,

“First, I truly believe that there is more support for a draft than many would assume, but that support rests on the feeling that our country is truly threatened by an outside force. For whatever reasons, and there are many, the war on terror is not held as a truly critical threat to America. I suppose life is a bit too normal for us to really be at war. Secondly, I have noticed just how amazed most of my peers are at the overwhelming power of the American military industrial complex.”

Wouldn’t it be great if potential draftees had a choice for what purpose they could serve?

Though the Military is volunteer and has selected to serve, why is the National Guard sent to Iraq and Afghanistan? Aren’t they supposed to defend the country within the borders, maybe I just don’t know. Also there were stories of leave being revoked or delayed and various “stop loss” measures instituted to retain soldiers to active status.

If a U.S. Government is going to go on military adventures I believe it points to a necessity to increase the size  of the armed forces. Looking at recent recruitment efforts its not going to be voluntary it has to be a draft.

U.S. Military might no substitute for a coherent foreign policy

The above phrase is the Op-Ed headline in the Daily Star, a Lebanese newspaper. It seems that the U.S. lead an international naval exercise off the Bahrain coast across from Iran aimed at blocking the smuggling of WMDs into Iran. The editorial goes on to say that military might has not solved anything in Iraq yet and shows no sign of doing so and the U.S. would be better served by bringing some clear thinking foreign policy into the equation.

Its evident that even the people in the war zone see that a new direction is needed than just the empty rhetoric flowing out of the administration these last few years.

Dear President Bush, please call up the Military Draft

We don’t have enough soldiers on the ground to fight two fronts, your Secretary of Defense does not have or want to send more troops over there. If you don’t have enough soldiers please call up the draft because no one in their right minds will volunteer to go get killed in a war that should not have happened.

By the way, your poll numbers are down, your own party, except for the neocons, are turning against you, you don’t seem to know how to change a non-working strategy, the Brits want to leave Iraq, and here’s the clincher, you cannot run for a third term.

So what do you have to lose? call up the draft and send more soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan to put an end to the fighting. This dilly dallying and hand wringing is not how Americans solve problems, take the bold step.

Active U.S. service personnel plea for pullout of Iraq

A group of active U.S. armed services personnel signed a rare appeal for prompt pullout from Iraq, ” staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for the U.S. troops to come home.”

As one soldier asked, ” why are in Iraq if weapons of mass destruction are not found, if the links to Al  Qaeda are not substantiated.”

The appeal for redress group supported by Iraq Veterans against war, Veterans for Peace and Military families speak out are all groups that have members who have served in Iraq, or have family members in Iraq. These are not outsiders protesting the war but people who are actively engaged in Iraq. I wonder what the reaction from the war apologists are going to be, these are not people who can be easily dismissed.

The active personnel who are signing and delivering the petition to Rumsfeld are are especially brave considering that they are jeopardizing their careers in making this appeal. If only their bosses had the same nerve at the very outset.

“Stay the course” in Iraq – new definition by the Prez.

So if I read the tea leaves right, the President and his staff are telegraphing their intentions of a possible policy change towards Iraq. The President’s now oft repeated”Stay the course” which used to mean that he was steely of purpose in reshaping Iraq and getting the bad man now means that he will he will shift tactics to respond to new challenges. This, in my opinion shows that less and less people are buying the tired phrase.

The democrats are taking advantage of this new tack and are trying to make something of it during congressional races. But these opportunistic (expletive deleted) dunderheads were nowhere as brave when the vote was taken to go to war. Well, except for Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland.

Is the Johns Hopkins study on Iraq deaths credible?

William Arkin of the Washington Post disagrees with the estimate of Iraq deaths as reported by the Johns Hopkins epidemiologists in the Lancet. Among other points he writes that the U.N. and others who have studied the issue could not have missed four out of five deaths. However he also points out that this research by a respected institution now allows people to speculate and possibly accept the notion that the number might be a lot higher than reported by other organizations.

Jefferson Morley of the Washington Post in a round up of world opinion on the report finds detractors and supporters but even the IBC encapsulates the generally held opinion that whether the number is 50,000, 100,000 or 6000,000 the deaths and injuries are too high a price to pay for the Iraqi civilians.

More on the disconnect and indifference plus the Draft

To continue from the previous post other returning vets feel that the people around them are more interested in the results of American Idol than the bombings in Baghdad and its easy to see why. With no threat of draft people think its not their problem and the informed public is divided over the reasons for going to war and the conduct of it by the administration. How is a country able to send off its young on a war without shared sacrifice? I think to bring this issue to front and center would be to call for a draft. and secondly, to have a mandatory service after school or college. Every adult should go through some basic training and be on reserve. I feel that this involvement or a threat of being called up will keep people on their toes  and be a deterrent against willful politicians from indulging their military excursions.

Disconnect between soldiers and civilians

Returning veterans are asked questions like whether they went “clubbing” in Iraq! or others who see indifference when they come back home shows the deep disconnect between the military and the general populace on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There may be many reasons but I suspect its a combination of a secretive government trying to tamp down on bad news and the media keeping most of the war news off the front burner. I also think this flies in the face of what the Government and military leadership continually touting the “professional” armed forces. OK great but they still are people sent on an extraordinary task that threatens their life every minute of every day and one that requires them to kill people. This is not like any white or blue collar job. So even if it is a volunteer and professional armed forces they are still people removed from the general population and sent over to fight, they are not grown in a petri dish. More should be done to express our gratitude to these soldiers and those that have given their life but what should be done?