As They Stand Up, We'll Stand Down

The President's simplified explainations of this war may come back to haunt us. The ONE Iraqi Battalion capable of fighting without US support has been downgraded to "only" being ready to fight with US Support. This indicates that we may have years before the Iraqi's can defend themselves...and that assumes all goes well over there.

Now, the real problem is what happens if Iraq falls completely into civil war? What do we do? crackdown on unrest? That won't work in the same way we experienced before. these people won't be captivated with the idea that they can get along and form a government. this will be dealing with people that gave up on that notion, aka our goal. If that is the case, then we can expect a great deal more resistance to our efforts.

And what then?

Bush tells us if we leave, then we've cut and run. We've betrayed the deaths of the soldiers that came before. These are his words, and they set up this false dilemma between their goal (which they can't seem to verbalize into an actual thing they can describe) and all out defeat (anything other than their uncertain goal).

This is a great way to pitch your side of the war in a Presidential campaign, but if the planning and the reality don't go much deeper than that, you create a deadly disaster that toys with the lives and patriotism of people that have dedicated their lives to your cause. I believe the root problem here is the fact that we've never had enough troops to occupy the nation. With that as a fact, you run the risk of a civil war you cannot contain and from which you may not be able to return.

Bush has said many times it is up to the Iraqi people. He's said that Democracy is a gift from god and spreading it is doing God's will. He hasn't said what he will do if Iraq doesn't want this gift, and I'm not sure he's allowed himself to think of such problems. When bush sees everything but his version of things as losing, then he cannot see any other vision as a way of winning. This is our lot today.