Iraq

Jeff Jarvis talks about John McCain's comments on The Today Show. McCain, whom I like and admire, says we can't leave Iraq.

Maybe he's right.

But what I want to know is can we admit we were wrong to thumb our nose at our friends and allies? Can we do what it takes to get some help in Iraq? Can we let others have some say in what goes on there? Can we share the bloodshed? Can we do what it takes to let the Iraqis know that they are fighting the world instead of the jerks who run our country?

That's what I want to know.

Comments

[scott partee]

That's always been my big gripe with this whole affair: why couldn't we wait, build consensus and go for it. If the case was really so compelling, other nations would have come around, just as they did about Afghanistan (where the evidence and case was overwhelming).

I just hope our friends-in-nation are better friends in the future than we were about a year and a half ago. I have a feeling we'll be needing them, and I just hope they feel like stepping up to the plate to help rather than letting us founder in a potentially loooooong engagement.

On that same Today show, the military commentator (Barry McCaffrey, I believe) said it quite bluntly: we don't have enough troops in Iraq. 1500 Marines are trying to pacify a town of 200,000 citizens. When asked why we don't move more in, he stated "there aren't any more." We've already started moving them back to Afghanistan, where they should have been all along working to catch the Al Qaeda core, leadership and membership. If I remember right, we have 5 of our 7 Divisions engaged right now... not a lot in reserve at all.

Had we done this with mass involvement, and with better planning, I think the situation would be much better -- far fewer hot points, far fewer opportunities for chaos, and far less detraction in the world-wide collective thought.

Instead, I almost get the impression that people are rooting against the U.S. in Iraq. Look at some of the cartoons on merdeinfrance.blogspot.com to see what I mean.

I have always believed that war with Iraq was nearly inevitable, but always questioned the when and implementation of the Bush Administration. Despite my conviction that Iraq was a threat, I don't think we, or the region, are any better off right now than had we waited a while. Saddam was contained, actively engaged militarily, and, had the need for intelligence not been so hasty, probably would have been proved to have WMD or attmpting to produce WMD.

I'm not one to be so naive as to state "war is bad" because I've studied the matter and I've studie d history and I know that it is inevitable in certain situations. But it should always be the last resort, and in this case, I don't think it was used as such.

As to your question, I don't know if this administration will ever admit to any wrong-doing. They are controlling the debate in such a "with us or against us" fashion that the middle ground has little voice. To admit we were wrong now would be, in the framework of the Republican-controlled debate, abandoning the War on Terror, our brave American soldiers and showing weakness in a time where strength is required.

Of course, our military isn't our greatest strength. I have more about my thoughts on that on my site:

http://www.halfass.com/log/archives/our_strongest_weakness.php

[Jerry]

We're stuck there. There's no doubt about it. As bad, as rash, as stupid, as wasteful, as horrendous as the prosecution of this war has been, the surest, fastest, most definite way to let a thousand new Osama's bloom would be to let this country fall into bloody civil war on a scale yet unprecedented. Rememeber that our greatest "sin" in the eyes of Osama---beyon our support for Israel---was to have left the Afghan Muhajdeen with their asses exposed after they did our bidding and kicked the Soviets out of Afghanistan. (That was back in the days when the CIA gave Osama all the weapons he could use and Ronald Reagen, Dick Cheney, George Bush The First, and Don Rumsfeld called them Freedom Fighters.)

Did you see Bob Kerrey swinging at Condi Rice today?