Bush plan will not work

Before the President gets on television tonight to announce to the country that he is sending 21,500 more soldiers to Iraq, I have a few points to consider.

First, the military situation in Iraq is untenable. It might not be if we had 500,000 troops there. We don't have them in reserve, and if we did the political ramifications of escalating action and casualties would be too much of a price to pay politically at home.

Why is it untenable? With the backing of Iran and Syria, a steady flow of arms and fresh insurgents continue to pour into Iraq. Their mission isn't to defeat the United States in an armed conflict, they can't reasonably do that at present. Instead, their goal is to bleed the fight out of America and at the same time increase the instability of the government by promoting the sectarian Civil War. It is working. The resent elections in the U.S. are proof of the discontent at home.

Second, the real problem isn't our troops, or their training, or their effort. It seems that the leadership in the White House doesn't seem to understand the plight. It is hard to fight an enemy that can slip in and out of the local populace. The rules of engagement at that point would negate the advantage of air power, armor, and technology. It's down to a rifleman, something we do not have enough of. It seems like no matter how many insurgents are defeated, captured, or killed, the local populace gets upset at the unrest and destruction. They also have many more insurgents that are willing to die as a martyr. A tough enemy that I believe has been underestimated. They probably aren't now. Also our enemy has the tactical advantage of knowing where we are, how we operate, and when to hit us. They know that time is on their side and as long as they keep killing American soldiers, they will eventually get what they want.

Third, we will leave with an Iraqi government in place. I think it is not impossible but likely that this government will be unable to survive. It cannot even operate properly right now with the Coalition presence in place. Tonight Bush is going to tell us that the Iraqi's need to step up and take the burden. If it is one thing that I haven't learned yet, it is what an Iraqi is. I know there are Shiites, Sunni's and Kurds. I just don't think they think of themselves as Iraqis. And that brings me to my next point.

As long as these people are going to hate and fight each other, they are not going to live together in a democracy like ours. At best, we can hope for a dictatorship to return and at the worst an Islamic Republic. Want to guess who would be influencing that regime? It probably wont be us. Hell, there is lack of trust within the government we installed and aid.

Sure, you scare mongers can preach about how terrorism will flourish and that by us being there keeps it off our soil, and that might be so. But you cannot prove that. The fact is if they want to get to us now, they can. Evidence that we cannot stop illegal immigration is proof enough. That 'occupy the terrorists in Iraq' thinking is called, Exstrapolostrategery.

Finally, the bipartisan commission that Bush charged with the study recommended he involve Syria and Iran. He is ignoring that, and instead staying the course with his own solution. More troops? Probably some of these have been there multiple tours already. How long we stay is nothing more than a guess. We don't have an exit strategy and that shouldn't surprise you, we didn't have a plan to occupy either. The time hasn't come to escalate, the time has come to get out! So there you have it. We are stuck in a war we can't win. Our leader doesn't have a plan. He doesn't want to negotiate with the enemy and he doesn't want to leave. The bad in that is too ignorant to fathom. I feel bad for our soldiers most of all because their Commander has too much pride to be Chief.

Flame Away and look at the bright side, at least we will have more troops to look for the WMD's.