More realizations...

Over the weekend we were treated to another former US General slamming the Iraq war and the Bush(whacked) Administration’s strategy (a term I use very, very loosely…)

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former top American commander, gave a speech in which he offered up an extensive condemnation of the four-years the U.S. has been in Iraq.

Not only did he say that that administration’s war plan was “catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic”, he also said that the Bush(whacked) Administration’s handling of the war was incompetent. He then denounced the current “surge” strategy as a “desperate” move that will not achieve long-term stability before saying that the US was “living a nightmare with no end in sight.”

Well, duh…

The number of people who are starting to see this for the first time is staggering, but not surprising. It was only a matter of time before people’s minds caught up with their eyes and they saw what a true mess the Iraq war is.



And following hot on the heels of Gen. Sanchez’ comments that the Iraq war is a “nightmare with no end in sight”, 12 former Army captains have come out declaring that “five years on, Iraq is in shambles,” and that “short” of a military draft, “our best option is to leave Iraq immediately.”

So much for the Bush(whacked) Administration’s claims that all in the military support the war… but the 12 soldiers weren’t done… they went on to say;

“As Army captains who served in Baghdad and beyond, we’ve seen the corruption and the sectarian division. We understand what it’s like to be stretched too thin. And we know when it’s time to get out. […] To continue an operation of this intensity and duration, we would have to abandon our volunteer military for compulsory service. Short of that, our best option is to leave Iraq immediately. A scaled withdrawal will not prevent a civil war, and it will spend more blood and treasure on a losing proposition. America, it has been five years. It’s time to make a choice.”

When will this administration see this for themselves??

An Absolute Must. Read.

What else is there to say about this op-ed but wow...

As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day. (Obviously, these are our personal views and should not be seen as official within our chain of command.)...

In short, we operate in a bewildering context of determined enemies and questionable allies, one where the balance of forces on the ground remains entirely unclear. (In the course of writing this article, this fact became all too clear: one of us, Staff Sergeant Murphy, an Army Ranger and reconnaissance team leader, was shot in the head during a "time-sensitive target acquisition mission" on Aug. 12; he is expected to survive and is being flown to a military hospital in the United States.) While we have the will and the resources to fight in this context, we are effectively hamstrung because realities on the ground require measures we will always refuse — namely, the widespread use of lethal and brutal force....

Political reconciliation in Iraq will occur, but not at our insistence or in ways that meet our benchmarks. It will happen on Iraqi terms when the reality on the battlefield is congruent with that in the political sphere. There will be no magnanimous solutions that please every party the way we expect, and there will be winners and losers. The choice we have left is to decide which side we will take. Trying to please every party in the conflict — as we do now — will only ensure we are hated by all in the long run....

In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal.

You can read the whole thing HERE... and I highly suggest you do...