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October 6, 2006
America's Sin Is One Of Hesitation.
Mohammed at Iraq the Model is saying what many of us have been thinking for some time, in spite of what the Democratic leadership and their leftist friends say, the number of troops in Iraq has never been the issue; where we put the troops is what matters most:
... In the last post we talked about the biggest mistakes of Iraqi leaders and politicians and today I'm going to talk about America's mistakes. I chose this order for my thoughts because Iraqis with their mistakes contributed more to the current problems in Iraq than America did.Be sure to read Omar's entire post.... America too had her share of mistakes that made things go in the wrong direction instead of helping out. Perhaps America's biggest mistake was the hesitation in keeping up the strategy of preemptive war.
... Yes, America used that strategy in Iraq but failed to go on, and instead of chasing terrorists, America stopped at Iraq and sat waiting for terrorists to come in.
... Keeping a large number of troops in Iraq and hoping they could root out terrorists can only be described as a bad plan. It really wouldn't matter much if we had 50 thousand in stead of 150 thousand troops in Iraq and in fact what really matters is the distribution of these troops.
... If we look back at the record of the war since April 2003 we'll see that adding more troops on the ground resulted only in making the enemy call for more reinforcements and the war kept getting more violent. In other words, how much troops we have is not the question, where we put the troops is.
... The insurgents, terrorists and militias operating in Iraq depend on foreign support for money, training, technology and in some cases men. Moreover the influence of foreign interference is clear even in the political arena in Iraq through the numerous political crises the country had faced. Thus, this war will not see an end unless America revives the preemptive war strategy and start chasing the enemies and striking their bases in the region, especially in Syria and Iran.
Lest we forget, these words are coming from an Iraqi, in Iraq.
While I whole-heartedly agree with Mohammad's take on some of our mistakes in Iraq, what he suggests should have been undertaken long before now, back when the American public had not yet begun settling into "Iraq fatigue" which to some degree might apply to our military, as well. However, it should be clear that unless we put the plug the holes in the dike, specifically the flow of the support terrorists and insurgents by Iran and Syria, we're doing little more than treading water.
A commenter at Egyptian Sandmonkey points to an alternative argument at Flit(tm), who says that "Mohammed is engaged in magical thinking. We aren't going further and faster because we can't sustain that sort of effort." While timing is indeed a key element of success in war, holding back while your enemy gains a decisive advantage isn't. Let's just say I find this alternative view to be that of "magical thinking," rather than Mohammed's view.
Hat tip - Egyptian Sandmonkey
Posted by Richard at October 6, 2006 4:10 PM
