Even the ubiquitous Mr. O’Hanlon raised this possibility in one of his many media interviews recently, though to be fair to him, since he hedges his bets more than a Wall Street hedge
fund, it was hard to tell whether favors it, would tolerate it, opposes it, or is merely keeping his options open for future op-eds and media shows.
The big winner of the entire policy has been the government of Iran. The latest entrant into this quagmire is our supposed friend Saudi Arabia, criticized by American officials for its support for insurgents, then rewarded by those same officials with massive new arms sales. This is Kafkaeqsue.
The problem with the Iraq war is the Iraq war.
The reason some of us opposed it from the beginning, unlike the fossilized Democratic national security establishment that has been incoherent or supportive at various times — and unlike the radical discredited neoconservative national security establishment and the inept mainstream Republican national security establishment that often opposed the policy privately but supported it in practice — is this:
Centuries of history prove the tendency, very deep in Iraqi society, not only to break apart, but to fight wars within itself, sectarian faction against sectarian faction.
This was known long before the war began, ignored by an ignorant president with the arrogance to believe that an aggressive preemptive war followed by a corrupt Roman-like occupation could prove history and demographics wrong. It was known by a fossilized, careerist, and incoherent Democratic national security establishment with too many who want to be secretary of state, and too few who combine clarity with political courage.
This was known yesterday; it is known today; it will be known tomorrow. The great issue is how many Americans must die before our policy matches the history, culture, politics and realities of the country we invaded so casually and are trapped in so catastrophically.
The situation today is identical to the various interludes of delusion throughout this war when progress was claimed to be right around the corner. The statue of Saddam fell; Saddam was captured; the Iraqi election was held; Zarqawi was killed. These were all short-term successes
that changed nothing, each met with crowing victory claims by the president, by incoherence from the Democratic security establishment, and by submission from the Congress. Each meant nothing in the end, except to provide rationale for the body count to rise while the carnage continued.
At every step, truth was falsified, false hopes were raised, and failure continued. At every step propaganda was used to create heroes, from Pat Tillman to Jessica Lynch — legitimate heroes in real life, used as public-relations pawns with tissues of lies, deceptions and frauds.
At every step, every American commander became the most brilliant, even when their private advice was ignored. Every successive American commander had his hour of profound deification, when they were the smartest, the best, the greatest. Generals Franks, Abizaid, Sanchez, Casey and now Petraeus were all deified by the propaganda machine and turned into public-relations pawns for continued disastrous war.
Our current commander, Gen. Petraeus, is a great military thinker from a great military organization, the 101st Airborne, with a near-perfect record of failure in Iraq. His original efforts early in the war led to ultimate sectarian conflict within his regional command. His next mission for training Iraqis to “step up so we step down” was terribly failed, obviously. He allowed American weapons to fall into the hands of our enemies through mismanagement during his tenure.
In September of 2004, shortly before that year’s presidential election, Petraeus injected himself into the campaign on behalf of the president through a pre-election op-ed in The Washington Post. He gave glowing reports about the Iraqi military, Iraqi police and Iraqi leadership that look ridiculous now, three years later.
Petraeus is a good man and great military thinker with a record in Iraq that was so failed and flawed that only in the George Bush era would such a record be deified, and only with such incoherence from the Democratic national security establishment and such insiderism and laziness from the major media could such a deification of past failures be accepted.
Now we learn the “Petraeus report” will not be the Petraeus report, but the White House report. We learn he will not tesfify about his report but before the White House rewrite of the report.
With the latest maneuvering the administration will try to time his pre-report testimony with — you guessed it — the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001. Is there no shame left in Washington?
Meanwhile, every hour this escalation goes forward, our military force structures around the world are further destroyed. Troop rotation schedules move from destructive to cruel. Unmet short- and long-term needs for healthcare, disability and training escalate along with the war.
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