I will let the readers find a common thread between the following stories.
* We could lose Afghanistan because the administration unwisely diverted resources to Iraq.
* Five more US soldiers died yesterday in Baghdad alone.
* US forces in Iraq are exhausted to the breaking point.
* War czar Douglas Lute stepped out of his burrow, saw his shadow and declared that we may need a draft.
* Glenn Greenwald didn’t have to try very hard to get Michael O’Hanlon to admit that the media collectively blew it when they identified him and Kenneth Pollack as Iraq war critics. Weirdly, O’Hanlon also seemed practically eager to admit that every encounter in his Iraq junket was carefully pre-screened by the DoD. You would expect him to put a little more effort into defending his own credibility.
* Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki’s cabinet continues to fall apart. First his religious Sunni ministers resigned, now four secularists have followed suit.
I don’t particularly want to see America lose a war, but let’s talk reality. America has spent $1 trillion dollars and more lives than we lost on 9/11 spinning its wheels without making anything that a sane person would describe as progress. Our army is so far beyond broken that a pullout has become a foregone conclusion. The stay or leave decision passed long ago; now we get to choose whether to organize a pullout now or bugout later and leave our gear. Anybody who thinks that we can go on waiting for Godot progress for the next ten years is mailing it in from some fantasy world where the army is made up of infinite numbers of little plastic men who never get tired.
It is indescribably depressing to watch the morons who thought Terri could walk translate the same fallacy to running a war.
John Cole
I thought things were going to turn around now that Beauchamp lost his laptop.
Dug Jay
And I thought things were going to turn around when John Cole finally typed a whole sentence witout a typo, a misspelling, etc.
demimondian
You know, John, you don’t have to hide your true beliefs behind the Dug Jay pseudo.
AkaDad
I think the war was lost when the media started reporting the facts…
demimondian
Ironically, the Bush Administration may have done the one thing that will guarantee the loss of the war in Iraq on their watch last week: pointed out that winning it will require a draft, and suggested that we consider one.
Iraq was only affordable if it cost us next to nothing except a few poor volunteers who had, after all, asked for it. If any of the children of privilege need to flee to Canada, the price is too high.
Ripley
On the plus side, we did knock over The Sun Sphere…
Punchy
Yeah, but now every school in Iraq has a fresh coat of paint, so f#ck off, moonbat.
Dennis-SGMM
If large numbers of troops is the answer then the time to increase their numbers was before the war started. They could implement the draft this Monday but it would be a year or more before draftees took the field. Today, only one-third of US combat brigades are in a state of readiness, 40% of equipment is worn out to the point of needing replacement, the troops are exhausted.
I don’t think that a draft is the answer even if there existed the political will to begin one. At the height of the Vietnam war in 1968 the US had more than 500,000 troops in-country. We all know how well the Vietnam war turned out.
These are the things that happen when Congress weasels out of its constitutional responsibility to declare war and instead votes vague “War Powers” to the President: we invade countries that have not attacked us and whose people don’t share our goals for them.
PeterJ
You can’t flee to Canada anymore. There’s a new law since December 2001 that will send you back. So the rich kids will probably have to flee somewhere else.But since the rich are richer now than during Vietnam, I don’t think that will be a problem.
dslak
Here’s another one for the pile: People in the Iraqi government are working around the US military to obtain arms.
I wonder why Iraqi politicians would want black market weapons.
jake
Oh noes! Not reality. Let’s keep pretending that the only thing that stands between us and Total Victory (TM) is a few moonbatshit Osamaphiles who keep insisting that we look at what is happening rather than talking about what we want to happen. Or maybe we could just some of the Very Serious People on the Right and pray for another massive terrorist attack. Anything but … reality [shudder].
To fend off Blackwater “Contractors”?
Just a thought.
Bubblegum Tate
Hahaha! Awesome.
It’s still sort of funny that these idiots smugly consider themselves the only truly informed people around and proceed to make comments so stupid that they make Gomer Pyle look like a nuclear physicist (probably one helping the Iranians make the bomb!). But the whole wingnut schtick isn’t as funny as it used to be because it’s become way too depressing.
whatsleft
And will that draft be males only??? I need to know if I should start looking for places to stash my 17 1/2 year-old daughter…
dslak
Since only males are required to register for the Selective Service, the answer most likely is yes.
grumpy realist
Well, the Russian army ended up broken due to Afghanistan, and it looks like the US army will end up broken by Iraq.
Remember what Osama said he was planning to do to the US? Well, Georgie, looks like you carried out his wishes pretty well, didn’t ya? Talk about Manchurian candidates.
Maybe when we institute a draft, we could first of all send all the armchair warriors like Jonah G. and Michelle M.? And all the Young Republicans? Pretty please?
semper fubar
Nah. A draft will never ever happen at this stage of the game. They think the war is unpopular now? Wait til they start dragging people’s unwilling kids off to war.
No. I see a huge increase in mercenary forces happening (it will cost us a friggin’ fortune of course, but who gives a shit) way before a draft would ever get implemented.
As far as the military wanting to tough it out in Iraq so they can chalk up another “win” — I say if that’s what the generals *really* want to do, then fine, let ’em stay. Have your stinkin’ war. Stay there forever and get picked off one by one if that’s what rocks your socks. But don’t be thinking there’s ever going to be a draft for THIS war. Na. Ga. Na. Ha. Pen.
dslak
I do believe this conflict has already seen the largest scale use of mercenary forces since the Middle Ages.
MAX HATS
Quick! At my place. It’s safe there.
There’s no time to think!
Face
Hatcher or Garr? Which one’s the parapalegic?
Bruce Moomaw
Bruce Bartlett has just put a sensible commentary on the draft on Sullivan’s site (in addition to a REALLY stupid one on why we supposedly don’t need to do anything about the funding of political campaigns by large individual contributions). Quoting his sensible one:
“Good article in The Guardian this morning about the toll that the Iraq ‘surge’ is taking on our troops. They are completely exhausted, worn out, and stretched to the breaking point. It is further proof, as if it was needed, that George W. Bush’s prosecution of the Iraq War borders on the criminally negligent.
“The root of the problem is that we never had anywhere close to sufficient resources to pay for the ambitions of Bush and his neocon pals. To fight the kind of war they want to fight absolutely requires a draft to obtain the manpower necessary. But they have never had the guts to admit this fact publicly because they know perfectly well that what little support there is for the war would instantly collapse to near zero.
“It has long surprised me how little even the those on the left appreciate to what extent Bush’s prosecution of the Iraq War with a professional army has contained opposition to the war. The fact is that every single American soldier in Iraq is there because they volunteered. They may have gotten a lot more than they expected, but at least they weren’t conscripted the way many of those who died in Vietnam were. And certainly anyone who joined the army since 2003 has known with virtual certainty that they would end up in Iraq.
“I say this not to diminish their sacrifice, but rather to explain why the political reaction to Iraq has been so different than the reaction to Vietnam. The draft made the prospect of being killed in some far off jungle very real for every draft-age male and their families. It was tantamount to murder to put many of these poorly trained, poorly equipped, ill-conditioned, and undereducated young men into the field in Vietnam (the well educated, of course, had college deferments). It’s hard to convey just how pervasive the fear was that being drafted in those days was the equivalent of a death sentence. No wonder the protests against the war were so large and intense.
“At least today’s professionals fighting in Iraq are far better trained and equipped. They have things like body armor that didn’t exist in Vietnam, that have saved the lives of many that would have died in that war. While they are often tragically maimed, they still have their lives. This has held down the number of funerals at Arlington Cemetery to a level that has been to a large extent politically tolerable.
“But the cost has been that we must work our soldiers into the ground, with extended tours, minimal time off, and all of the psychological and physical degradation that goes with it. Although it probably cannot be estimated, there is no doubt that a large and growing number of casualties must result from exhaustion, lack of sleep, stress and other pressures resulting from excessive time in the field.
“The honest thing for Bush to have done would have been to ask for reinstatement of the draft to provide the manpower to pursue his ambition. Obviously, this would have made clear that we cannot afford the cost of the Iraq War and undoubtedly put irresistible pressure on him to end this folly. I consider it an act of cowardice that Bush has refused to accept the logic or consequences of his policy in this way.”
To which I’ll add only that I think there is a very real chance that at some point in the near future we WILL need a draft to cope with the overall Megaterrorism War (especially its nuclear-terrorism possibilities) — and that still another disastrous consequence of the current Phony War is that, when that need does come, the US public may treat the government the way the shepherds treated the Boy Who Cried Wolf.
myiq2xu
You have to watch the clip of Faux News’ Courtney Keely reporting from a market in Baghdad (on C&L, among others.)
She is gushing about the “Surge” and how much things are improved while wearing body armor and a helmet, and being surrounded by bodyguards.
Talk about unintended satire.
I recall seeing journalists in Viet Nam, Beirut, the former Yugoslavia and other war zones, and even in the most chaotic of locations they didn’t need as much protection as Keely did in the post-Surge capital city of Iraq.
Psycheout
Why are you sick people so hateful of Terri?
courtneyme109
“…I don’t particularly want to see America lose a war, but let’s talk reality…”
Fair enough, the Common Thread to me is easy.
Iraq has been turned into a giant sucking killing machine for wannabe Jihadi’s, Saudi Rejects, Syrian and Iranian Minions. The Ray Ban wearing, Skoal chawing, cigar smoking Sons of The Great Satan are killing them off by the truckload.
Example? The Mahdi Army and Moktada Al Sadr. The Mahdi Army 1.0 was anihilated in Najaf in August 2003, the 2.0 in Karbala in April 2004, the 3.0 in Sadr City. Heck, the guy might be on our side – sucking Iran dry of volunteers, weaponry and cash, gathering his minions in one place for hallowed names as ‘Old Ironsides”, “Ivy” “Rock of the Marne” and the spiritual sons of Iwo Jima and Tripoli to sweep in visting death and precise destruction on our enemies.What has he acomplished? He’s had to split town – back to the Mullahs (rumour has it during lavish exile in Iran back in the day, he and Hiz’B’Allah’s Sec Gen Hassan Nas’Rallah shared an awesome condo in a cushy, clerical enclave in Teheran).
AQ in Iraq Jihad is now a dumb thing to do. And for what? To get killed and left on the side of the road for a stranger to bury? For the population to tire of watching their neighbors executed for having a dvd of “the girls next door?” and buddy up with Americans?
How sweet the Iraqi Gov is going on vacation – and most likely will be unable to recieve emergency cell phone calls from their doomed constituents as Americans methodically surge in the enemy’s HQ, capturing intell, prisoners, and supplies.
Thanks to American technological advancements like Battlefield Medicine, real time tactical intell – day or night, advanced weaponry, superior leadership American casualties are a very far cry from say, 22K at Okinawa in six weeks. Numbers are crucial and if a draft is brought up straight talk is needed. Maybe a crash course from Hollywood to Madison Ave on the concept of service to something larger than self would help.
The entire month of May saw the Islamic Republic of Iran suffer massive protests by their own people. Petrol rationing. Teachers protesting. Students protesting. Even Russia bailed on completion of multiple massive building projects because of no payments. Now mass executions for Unislamic Activity. The Ministry of Virtue and Vice Prevention, the Religious Police, the Secret Police, the Dress Code Police and all their volunteer Basijis’ are desperately trying to maintain the Mullahs power.
Iraq is a quagmire alright – but not for America.
Zooming out of Iraq it is very clear in history and current events that accepting despots on their terms did not bring stability, but war, oil embargoes and terrorism for 50 years. Replying to 20 years of terrorist attacks, from the Iranian hostage taking in 1979 to the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, with indictments and a few cruise missiles supported their Jihadi philosophy. Staging coups or propping up authoritarians in Iran or the Gulf turned the ME rabidly radical.
Pushing democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq was not our first, but last choice. It was not a good option, only a bad one when the other alternatives had proven far worse.
What America is trying to do in the ME is costly, easily made fun of, misunderstood and unappreciated. Constitutional government is one course that might someday free the ME from kidnappings, suicide bombers, Mullahs, Supreme Leaders, Lions of Syria, Presidents for life, the religious police, the secret police, intolerance, honor killings, gender apartheid and corrupt Royalty in Ray Bans.
That’s in our interest and theirs alike.
whatsleft
MAX HATS – be careful what you wish for – she’s an evil-tempered, sharp-tongued, self-centered messaholic with expensive tastes…
but as much as we are ready to get rid of her, even WE wouldn’t ship her off to this war!
demimondian
Well, whatsleft, we’re one up on you — we have a son who’ll be eighteen in just a few days.
TenguPhule
And there’s the problem right there, nobody on the GOP Cheerleader’s side is sane.
The good news, we know who the crazies are.
The bad news, we know who the crazies are.
TenguPhule
Not cowardice, but spiteful indifference. Cowardice implies that Bush recognizes responsibility and feels shame.
The sick sad truth is that he simply doesn’t care. It doesn’t affect him at all, the soldiers are little plastic toys to fight and die because it is what he wants and there are always more where they came from when they break.
Welcome to the mind-set of Pre-Revolution France.
RSA
From USA Today, recently:
The U.S. government isn’t paying for all these, of course; the estimates seem to be in the 20K to 30K range. But that’s still a relatively large percentage, I think.
TenguPhule
Maybe not directly.
But I’d bet dollars to donuts that 90%+ of the remainder’s pay originated from Federal Dollars trickling down from subcontracting.
Security costs alone ate up over half of the Reconstruction money…..that we know of.
And anyone stupid enough to play merc in a warzone deserves whatever the Iraqis do to them. If anything is the definition of an ‘illegal combatatant’, a private ‘security contractor’ who doesn’t have to answer to either US or Iraq’s laws is it.
TenguPhule
Choice bits from the first article:
It’s like there’s a race to bottom for who can do the stupidest thing in this administration and there’s no way to tell who’s winning anymore.
RSA
I wouldn’t bet against you.
Pug
Karl Rove, Joe Lieberman, Mitt Romney, Tony Blankley and many others have “college age” boys. I’m thinking there won’t be a draft.
Fledermaus
Yep if the GOP’s corporate masters aren’t successful in buying off congress to stall an investigation into the money, people will be going to jail.
However I’m not going to hold my breath.
Tony Alva
courtneyme109,
Seems that none of the others were willing to respond to your comment, so I will…
Thank you. Well said.