In an effort to prove that they are very serious people, the Day has opined that despite its belief that we should end our military involvement in Iraq, we should not in fact end our military involvement in Iraq. We should, as the editorial is titled GIVE NEW IRAQ STRATEGY TIME.
This editorial deserves to be annotated, so rife is it with irrational thinking and ignorance of the facts. Let’s try to scrape the surface.
First, there’s the title. This is not a new Iraq Strategy. This is a strategy (the surge) that was announced in December of 2006 and, according to its proponents would bear fruit by this time. Keep in mind that the fruit it would bear would be political reconciliation- i.e., a stronger central government with more popular support. It has failed spectacularly on those terms. In any event, there is no new strategy-Petraeus is offering more of the same.
Now, the introduction, in which the editorialist notes that the good general is testifying on the anniversary of the World Trade Center attack, which as it acknowledges in the fourth paragraph, was and is entirely unrelated to the war in Iraq. So why make a connection that is acknowledged to be without foundation?
Then we have this:
What resulted was four years of terror bombings, bloodshed and revenge killings. Most ironically, al-Qaida, a non-factor in Iraq when the late Mr. Hussein was in power, now is a significant player and seeks to fuel the sectarian violence in hopes of handing the United States an embarrassing foreign policy failure in the Middle East. (Emphasis added)
It’s the line they’ve been pushing, of course, but couldn’t the Day do it’s homework and learn a little about the subject from non-propagandists. It might start here, (washington monthly), where it would find that al-Qaida’s presence in Iraq is miniscule, and it is not even clear that those calling themselves “Al-Qaida in Iraq” have any formal connection to Osama’s Al-Qaida. But why let facts get in the way of a good story line.
The Day goes on to tell us that:
At the local level, Sunni tribal leaders have worked with our nation’s forces to root out al-Qaida and other terrorist elements.
You mean these guys (see, Washington Post, In Iraq, a Perilous Alliance With Former Enemies)
U.S. commanders are offering large sums to enlist, at breakneck pace, their former enemies, handing them broad security powers in a risky effort to tame this fractious area south of Baghdad in Babil province and, literally, buy time for national reconciliation.
American generals insist they are not creating militias. In contracts with the U.S. military, the sheiks are referred to as “security contractors.” Each of their “guards” will receive 70 percent of an Iraqi policeman’s salary. U.S. commanders call them “concerned citizens,” evoking suburban neighborhood watch groups.
Yes, that’s right. We are busily arming people who have, until recently, been bowing our soldiers to bits. What could go wrong?
But the Day recognizes the problem, in a way, doesn’t it?
These Sunni tribal groups that our forces now work with by providing money and military aid could one day turn on the central government or other factions, generating the civil war the U.S. policy has sought to avoid.
Earth to Day: The Civil War has been raging for years. It just may be that we are now taking sides against the central government we created (while still supporting the central government-it gets so confusing, doesn’t it?). What a great position to be in-on both sides of a civil war in a country we refuse to understand.
Some more tidbits. According to the Day, Congress should drink more of the Kool-Aid the Day has been drinking because it supported the surge in the past. To the best of my recollection Congress had nothing to say in the matter. How convenient to forget how impotent is our Congress. In any event, the surge was “sold” on the terms I mentioned above, and it was to be judged based on its success exactly now. On the pre-announced terms, it has failed.
Like all the serious folks in Washington, the Day doesn’t appear to notice that the goal posts keep moving, and the rules keep changing. There are some constants that the Day should keep in mind: Everything they say is a lie, they can always find some general to be their front man (see, Powell, Colin and Thompson, Tommy) and their only goal is to run out the clock to leave someone else to clean up their mess.