Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Continuing To Continue To Stay The Course (Continued)

Everybody's been holding their breath since the bipartisan Iraq Study Group launched their much-publicized recommendations on "changing the course" in Iraq.

Bush signalled, "wait and see," and then decided to go talk to more of his handpicked policymakers in the State Department and the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, everybody from Reverend Moon to Joe Leiberman is lobbing dirt-bombs at the Iraq Study Group, trying to discredit their findings in the media and the public mind.

So, lo and behold, we're all turning blue in the face. Bush has "decided on a new course" and is not ready to release it to the public.

Jennifer Loven of the AP writes that an anonymous "defense specialist" in the negotiations told her what's in the works.
The message to Bush, the defense specialist said, is that the U.S. cannot withdraw a substantial number of combat troops by early 2008, as suggested in the Iraq Study Group report, because the Iraqis will not be ready to assume control of their country.

What he didn't say is that the longer we stay there, the more the situation deteriorates. Why? Because we are not able to assume control of the country and are therefore unable to train anyone else to do so.

We can't help the Iraqi government "deal with the extremists and killers," because we are the catalyst of the extremism.

Having missed the boat on rebuilding after we destroyed their infrastructure, we let the window for rebuilding during a secure domestic climate shut, and now the country is too unstable to launch major civil engineering and rebuilding programs.

Let's face it. The bottom line is American influence and control in the region and the world, especially over energy supplies.

Otherwise, we'd be out of there by May 1st.

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