Reality Checks
Lots of talk out there about what’s real, what’s not. Big reality roundup below, but first, this week’s Irony Cross with oakleaf clusters to repeat honoree Harry Reid.
“We are stuck in a twilight zone in Iraq,” Reid said.
He hasn’t been in the news much lately. You’ll remember him as part of the war-ending Democratic mandate. No cruel Twilight Zone jokes, please.
The mandate holders now fear the next president will face a quagmire in Iraq. They should. No cruel Capitol Hill quagmire jokes, please. Until they face the reality that war must be fought to win, and we have the strategy in place to do that, the kind of pandering half measures Clinton or Obama are likely to take are guaranteed to produce quagmire in Iraq. Unless they go ahead with utter abandonment, in which case quagmire rapidly becomes debacle.
Peter Feaver, Commentary, Anatomy of a Surge, on how we got where we are; where we are; and where we might go.
Gerard Baker, Time of London, remarks on the unreality of the Iraq debate.
Republicans seem to suggest that the war is going so well that the US should simply stay indefinitely. But senior strategists close to Mr McCain acknowledge what many in the Pentagon are saying with increasing alarm - that the strains the war is placing on US military capabilities are so great that some significant reduction in the American role is essential some time soon.
At the same time, Democratic foreign policy advisers also admit that the chances that their candidate will be able to meet campaign promises and pull US forces out quickly next year – whatever the situation on the ground in Iraq – is equally absurd.
The reality is that, once the posturing is done and the election is over, whoever wins is going to have to sit down with General Petraeus or his successor – without the television cameras - and figure out a pragmatic resolution to this messy and prolonged American engagement.
The unreality starts with the equivalence Baker applies to his two extremes. I’d suggest the first problem is orders of magnitude easier to address than the second. It is possible to tailor the mission to suit the forces and the forces to suit the mission. Especially, in the latter case, with an accelerated expansion of the military.* It is, however, impossible to effect a hasty withdrawal from Iraq without disastrous results for U.S. and Iraqi interests both short term and long term.
Maybe that ultimately unavoidable realization is why NYT is so glum about the prospects that Iraq would actually be ready for a rapid abandonment anytime soon.
Moran at Pajamas, common sense and politicians being mutually exclusive, the pols used their time with Petraeus to score cheap political points.
OK, why so important to stay in Iraq, our moral obligation to the Iraqi people aside, our moral obligation to the sacrifices of our soldiers, our desire not to be shown, yet again, to be a toothless superpower that runs from a challenge? There’s a more immediate, practical reason that’s also being touched on today.
Amir Taheri, NY Post, sees things to like in Iran’s Busted Iraq Bid in Basra.
Here’s a reality check, compliments of Long War Journal: Sistani to Sadr, wake up and smell the law and order.
Ignatius gets off to a good start in Mitigating Iranian Mischief, all about how big a problem Iran is in Iraq, but descends into handwringing over the extent of Iranian involvement in Iraq and falls apart with the usual absurd suggestion that we engage without engaging. It’s not clear exactly what he’s suggesting. We must talk from a position of strength, but not make the mistake of exercising strength, which is bad, and anyway, it’s better to talk. I believe the Iranians are familiar with that game plan.
Here’s what the Petraeus briefing looks like when viewed as a progress report and to-do list, rather than used as a political punching bag. Gartenstein-Ross and Roggio at Weekly Standard.
In other Iranian business, Meir Javedanfar at Pajamas, New Iranian Nuclear Gambit Threatens West.
Austin Bay at Pajamas talks about the nuts-and-bolts needs of terrorist organizations. Note prominence of havens on that list.
We’ll close with something from Totten on some of the good things in life, in case you’ve gotten the impression that war, death and chaos is all Iraq has going: Builders of Nations.
“This is my hardest deployment,” Marine Sergeant Cooley said as he unfastened his helmet and tossed it onto his bed. “We weren’t trained for this kind of thing.” He’s been shot at with bullets and mortars, and he’s endured IED attacks on his Humvee, but post-war Fallujah is more difficult and more stressful than combat. He isn’t unusual for saying so. Many Marines I spoke to in and around the Fallujah area said something similar.
“We’re trained as infantrymen,” Captain Stewart Glenn said. “But here we are doing civil administration and trying to get the milk factory up and running.”
Milk factory, milk factory … why does that sound so familiar?
Ha! Reality bites propaganda. (Don’t forget to support the independent journalism at Totten’s and Long War.)
Welcome Instapundit, etal. It’s a beautiful day, stick around, we’re just hanging out. Everything’s going to pot. All hopes quashed. But everything’s good, we’ve got a Bobblehead Pope. Maybe time for a long walk down memory lane.
* Here’s a bandaid: Bush will announce his plan to cut the deployments, ease the strain … politically as well as militarily. Washington Post.
With thanks to Memeorandum, Pajamas and RealClearPolitics for the roundup assist.
Topics: Iran, Iraq, media, military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:31 am on Thursday, April 10, 2008
8 Responses to “Reality Checks”
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April 10th, 2008 at 10:14 am
I think the supposed strains on our military capabilities are massively exaggerated by people who want to think it’s true.
Are our forces under strain? Well, of course, they’re deployed and at war, aren’t they? But I get tired of seeing this overemphasized for all the wrong reasons. You really want to end the strain? Win the war.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Web Reconnaissance for 04/10/2008
A short recon of whats out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
No need to make cruel jokes. Reid and the Gang of Idiots are already the biggest joke going. And it’s not funny.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
No, it’s not funny.
Harry Reid (and so many others in Senate & House) won’t be changing their assessments or altering their mantras no matter what happens in Iraq.
They can’t, they’re stuck on stupid.
Watching some members of the House question General Petraeus and Ryan Crocker yesterday was physically painful. And embarrassing.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Why are the Ds panicked? They are running against “We are Americans and we will never surrender. They will”.
What do the Ds have to offer? “We are unAmericans and we know how to surrender. We have done it once, we can do it again.”
I thought they already tried that in ‘04? With the obvious results.
The Dems motto “We have a game plan that doesn’t work. Let us use it again.”
And Kerry and Tahreeza campaigning with Obama is just further proof. “Now Barry I’m a totally experienced loser. Let me show you how it is done.” The clown party at work. I expect Obama can show Kerry a thing or two about losing. I expect him to vastly exceed expectations.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Jules, man ~ in Reid’s defense, as far as your mean “He hasn’t been in the news much lately” goes, he’s been preoccupied in the geriatric sense:
…In a recent interview, Reid said that he’s “not going to be part of dumping” Byrd because “there are many days his mind is perfect.”
Taking care of your typical white grandfather IS time consuming…
April 10th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Fatty, I think you’re right. While there may be strains resulting from misallocation, the U.S. accounts for something like half of global military spending and outspends something like the next 15 largest militaries combined.
This is like ‘China is our banker’ and ‘we have to repair our image in the world’ — emotional, ‘a priori’ assertions repeated so often that they acquire an air of tautological certainty and those uttering them believe no further substantiation is required.
April 10th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Do you mean that we can’t ask for control of our TV sets back?