Republicans on Iraq
25 January 2008 7:00 am by Taylor Marsh
“I know of no military leader, including General Petraeus,
who says we can’t sustain our effort in Iraq.” – John
McCain
Ever heard of Army Chief of Staff General Casey?
Via
Larry Johnson (video at link):
“We’re deploying at unsustainable rates,” General Casey
said three weeks ago during remarks to an audience at the Brookings Institution
in Washington. The Army agreed to a buildup of troops a year ago with the
understanding that it was temporary, he said. “We can’t sustain
that. We have to come off of that, and we’re working that very hard.”
Casey offered the following in early
December 2007:
… Several months ago, we increased our deployment–”our boots on
the ground time” we call it–to 15 months. We needed to do that to support
the requirements of our commanders, to give our soldiers and families some
predictability and mostly to ensure that the soldiers that were deploying
had at least 12 months at home so that they could properly prepare to go.
Now, we did that with the full understanding that it was temporary. We can’t
sustain that, we have to come off of that and we’re working that very
hard and I think you can understand that when we decide to come off it, we
going to be darn sure that we don’t have to go back. And so I expect
an announcement on that here in the next three or four months as we watch
the situation there on the ground. …
As an aside, Clinton voted against approving General Casey as Army Chief of
Staff. I strongly disagreed with her on this. It’s also the only vote having to do
with Iraq on which Clinton and Obama differed.
Looking at the Republicans talk about Iraq last night, especially John McCain,
there is no grasp of reality at all. No clue about the political side of it that is not moving forward at all. Their lack of understanding on
what’s required for our own military’s vitality, not to mention our national security strategy in the region, is totally missing. They offered only talking points and worn out phrases about some
amorphous Islamic jihad, with no solution beyond bombs. There’s no imagination on how to get out of the violence strategy. They also still can’t separate from the Bush doctrine, except for Ron Paul.
Honestly, I think if Russert or Williams had asked them about Pakistan
they’d have internally combusted. But that neither moderator challenged McCain on his view on Iraq, regardless of the appropriateness of Russert’s question, shows you how one directional thinking has taken over our foreign policy, but also permeated our biggest voices in the traditional media.
