The Courage to Win

When our President first committed to invade Iraq in 2001 I wish he'd had the courage to prepare. He could have started a draft to create a military force as large as his ambitions. He could have raised the taxes to pay for the series of wars that he continues to unveil. But he's never had the courage to win. He claims this war is as important as WWII's fight against fascism, but continues to treat it as a guaranteed win.

US war games showed that we'd need over 400,000 troops to properly occupy a country as big as Iraq and protect it from outside infiltration.

Instead of raising taxes, as any sane nation at war does, he cut taxes on the richest and feigned surprise when we have annual budget deficits.

If Bush had taken these actions there's no guarantee we would have succeeded, but we would have had a decent chance. Instead he keeps our troops there without a victory strategy. If Bush isn't serious about winning there then we need to figure out how to get out.

Retired Green Beret Colonel W. Patrick Lang says that it would take at least a year and a half to train the hundreds of thousands of troops we need in Iraq. "Would any or all of these measures change the ultimate result? They might if the US persisted long enough. How long? Another 5 to 10 years probably would be my guess." I can't think of a single Republican politician with the courage to propose this.

On a more pessimistic note, Marine Corp Gazette contributor and Director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism William S. Lind has this to say:

The fact that Washington is seriously considering sending more American troops to Iraq illustrates a common phenomenon in war. As the certainty of defeat looms ever more clearly, the scrabbling about for a miracle cure, a deus ex machina, becomes ever more desperate - and more silly. Cavalry charges, Zeppelins, V-2 missiles, kamikazes, the list is endless. In the end, someone finally has to face facts and admit defeat. The sooner someone in Washington is willing to do that, the sooner the troops we already have in Iraq will come home – alive.

Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld is the writer of The Transformation of War, "among the most important treatises on military theory ever written". He is widely studied for his insights into asymmetric warfare, such as Israel's early fights against huge armies and their later fights against small rabbles. He says figure out how to leave Iraq now, and plan carefully.

What had to come, has come. The question is no longer if American forces will be withdrawn, but how soon — and at what cost....A withdrawal probably will require several months and incur a sizable number of casualties. As the pullout proceeds, Iraq almost certainly will sink into an all-out civil war from which it will take the country a long time to emerge — if, indeed, it can do so at all. All this is inevitable and will take place whether George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice like it or not.

I honestly would support any honest plan for victory in Iraq. But we've never been shown one. That being the case, I'd like to see an honest plan to get our troops back safely without starting World War III.