December 7, 2008 at 09:48:45

Bush Holdover Robert Gates: A Kinder, Gentler Shock and Awe

SAVE AS FAVORITE

VIEW FAVORITES

By Ron Fullwood (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

opednews.com Permalink

"History will catalog the reasons why we waged a war that didn't need to be fought, but two stand out. In 2002, when the fateful decisions about Iraq were made, there was a President for whom ideology overrode pragmatism, and there were too many politicians in Washington who spent too little time reading the intelligence reports, and too much time reading public opinion. The lesson of Iraq is that when we are making decisions about matters as grave as war, we need a policy rooted in reason and facts, not ideology and politics," Obama said.

In retaining Gates at the head of the Pentagon, Pres. Obama will, of course, expect him to stifle his public crusade for a military molded in his image and ambition. However, Gates will be tasked with conducting several reviews and crafting many assessments which the new president will rely on in his role as commander-in-chief, some, like an Iraq withdrawal plan and a direction in Afghanistan, will be critical.

Already, the Pentagon, at the direction of the White House, is preparing a set of 'options' for the Obama administration to consider for implementation in Afghanistan. Just ignore the fact that under Bush, and Gates as well, even the nation-building they've conducted in Afghanistan has faltered.

The latest military plan for Afghanistan, passed around today by the NATO chiefs, is to use the troops which would be reduced from the Iraq force and send them to defend Kabul; not heading directly for the Pakistan border to wage the battle against al-Qaeda Mr. Obama promised and encouraged, but heading directly from Iraq to defend the 'mayor of Kabul,' Hamid Karsai.

According to the NYT: "The plan for the incoming brigade, then, means that for the time being fewer reinforcements — or none at all — will be immediately available for the parts of Afghanistan where the insurgency is most intense."

Is this proposed 'surge' of force to defend the Afghanistan capital be the testing ground for Mr. Gates' new 'counterinsurgency' strategy? To me, it looks like the same old smash and grab approach that he's busy repudiating for benefit of the intellectuals he's appealing to in the journal; albeit, a bit less swaggering than his mentor.

"There's a huge building campaign (in Afghanistan) that has already begun," Major-General Michael Tucker, the deputy US commander in Afghanistan said today. "We're pushing dirt as we speak for the arrival of these forces," he said. "We have done in-depth studies on how many building spaces, how many helicopter pads, how many latrines, how many dining facilities ... down to the number of boots on the ground . . ."

An Iraq-type 'surge' in Afghanistan . . . "block by bloody block?"

1 | 2

Ron Fullwood, is an activist from Columbia, Md. and the author of the book 'Power of Mischief' : Military Industry Executives are Making Bush Policy and the Country is Paying the Price

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.