Maggie's Farm

> July 24, 2007 The Surge Succeeds By J.R. Dunn
>
> God looks after children, drunkards, and the United States of America - Otto von Bismarck

Well, Mr. Dunn has made a whole bunch of statements that are opinionated and grossly in error in regards to the goal of the legacy media and liberals in general in both Vietnam and Iraq. I've hashed over those issues often enough that I'm not going to do it again, though I am sorely tempted to do so.

In regards to the surge, I am pleased that it is working, but I don't think it is working quite as well as Mr. Dunn would have you believe, and there is a huge problem looming in the near term. I hope to God that the surge works as planned and will allow Iraq to get on its feet, but I fear that it will not because of the fact that the surge cannot be maintained much past this fall because of a lack of manpower.

From day one of the invasion, there were several critical flaws anyone of which if fixed prior to the invasion, as many both in and outside of the government were calling for, the probability that we would have the problems in Iraq that we would be much more remote. The first problem is that although the invasion could have been justified for a whole host of reasons, it was not justified for the reasons then stated. Second, there were not enough boots on the ground to control/police the country after the Iraqis were defeated. Third, that the post combat plans were either abysmal or non-existent. The rationale flaw is attributable to everyone in the administration, but Donald Rumsfeld has sole ownership of the other two.

Frankly, Iraq is only one problem facing the US in the Muslim world. I saw a very interesting program on either the Discovery HD channel or PBS last week on terrorism. One part of the program dealt with US efforts on the war against terror in areas of the world other than Iraq. One of the most interesting aspects was a small force of U.S. Navy personnel in central Africa. They were digging wells for the people who lived in the area, providing medical care, etc. In short, they were doing the same sort of things that we did after WWII, i.e., deliberate humanitarian acts.

The success of that particular program and others like it was demonstrated in the intelligence/analysis/commentary that bin Laden's troops were very displeased because the natives were strong supporters of the US. One village elder stood tall and said forcefully that he would be willing to fight al Qaeda for the US. The program went on to say that it was believed that Africa will likely be the next battle ground between radical Islam and the west. A caution was sounded that funding was difficult to get and manpower was very thin. I was heartened to learn that we are trying to do the right and smart thing in at least one area of the world.

Conservatives like Mr. Dunn can beat the drum all they want, but the truth is that we are still ill prepared to fight radical Islam on a world wide basis from the standpoint of either winning the war in the areas where actual combat operations are being conducted or winning the peace where we are trying to keep al Qaeda from prostelizing the populace successfully.

If we really want to win the war on terror and not just find a compromise or win the propaganda war, we need to change the entire direction of the country. If we truly face a threat greater than WWII, and I strongly believe that we do, we need not only to remain focused, but also we need to go on a war footing. We need to double or triple the number of Army and Marine combat troops, increase our air lift and sea lift capacity to deliver them, increase the forward deployment of combat loaded ships for rapid deployment, etc. We need to increase humanitarian efforts like those in Africa around the world.

Defeating radical Islam is a damn sight more important that preserving the illusion that we can continue to live just like we did before 9/11. By far the biggest and most difficult part of that to is to stop deluding ourselves that we can fight a real war and keep the peace time economy. Find me a politician that understands that and has the tool kit to convince the citizens of this country of that fact and I'll vote for him/her regardless of party affiliation. Don't hold your breath, however. Unfortunately for us there are not any politicians who the both the cojones and the ability to wean Mr. & Mrs. John Doe and their kids off of the sugar tit.