- The War in IraqThe past week has been about putting down the yelling, the ranting, ... putting the bull-hornus-maximus in the holster and trying to listen cognitively to opposing view points. I think I've listened hard and about as well as I can. Nobody has won me over with anything of issues yet (but in truth I have not asked for specific solutions from my blog brethren either), except that I can testify that not all the progressive/liberals are as linguini-spined in matters of security and military issues as I have been led to believe by the pundits. Not that I thought that was a true-ism but having blog chats has certainly crystallized that for me. Progressives love America just as much as my fellow conservatives,... they just have a different prism in viewing the road to our salvation as a nation.
A couple of weeks ago I started my solutions-driven blogs ("Show me the money") where I espoused my solutions and or ideas for the major problems of our times. That particular posting addressed the Federal Budget. This one takes on a trickier subject. The war in Iraq.
So, in the spirit of "what if's", if I were King for a Day, and had to come up with a plan of action pleasing both Republicans, Democrats, US and Foreign interest.... well here's my stab as Secretary of State. Condi, eat your heart out.
IRAQ: THE EXIT STRATEG(ER)Y
Step 1.
Declare an independent State of Kurdistan. The idea of Iraq being a nation of loving sectors is fool-hardy and the adhering of the British geographical lines of yesteryear is not something that has to be maintained. The biggest screamers have been the Turks for fear of having an independent Kurd state to their southern border. Tough, welcome to the new world order of geo-politics. The partition of the Kurds, -who don't want anything to do with the rest of the country anyway-, will make the task of the Sunni-Shiite cooperation a less vexing problem.
This wont please either party but it will surely please my sense of real life Monopoly.
Step 2.
The immediate re-deployment of an additional 75,000 troops from bases in Germany, South Korea and Japan to the country. The events in the next 36 months will happen at breakneck pace and as such, a massive show of force will scream out that we are not screwing around.
Both Democrats and Republicans have been questioning Rumsfeld for not putting enough boots on the ground? There, I gave you your damn numbers, now shut up and let the Generals bring this home.
Step 3.
Once the Kurds are out of their mery way and start building their own McDonald's, have the Iraq Government declare a sundown to sunrise curfew. Security has to start somewhere and although major steps have been taken to put forth security infrastructures, it hasn't been soon enough. The American/Coalition forces will patrol the country during the night, and Iraqi regular army and police patrols will be in charge of the day. No excuses. They start standing up right here and right now.
Step 4.
And here is where the bullet hits the bone. Being King means making tough choices. Goodbye press. All foreign press has 2 weeks to get out of the country, period. Why? simple. First of all insurgence depend on the free publicity that the press is more than willing to provide their ratings-starved cable networks back home. Sorry, follow American Idol and Paris Hilton for a few years, your ratings will be met. Second reason? I won't have my Generals conduct a war with one arm tied behind their backs. Haditha in my view was an aberration and not a systemic failure of military policy. Release the girth of American might and let the full weight of the "dogs of war" roam Babylon. Let's see terrorists and insurgents last 6 months with the US military giving no quarter to their tactics and no press looking over the GI's shoulders. The populace will have 2 choices and they will be clear. One, have the military machine raid every square inch of Iraq at the smallest tip and take by force whomever they are harboring, or two, they start beating their own Bushes (no pun intended) and take charge of their own destiny once and for all. This policy will be relayed via airwaves and leaflets throughout the country. Hell hath no fury like a pist-off chained-to-political-correctness military. We tried it the pretty way first. We're done with that. Folks, close your eyes and change the channel if you don't like what's coming, just like you do at home with your TV. You think this is without precedent? Read what Eisenhower, Patton, Marshall, Bradley and Westmoreland did in their campaigns of war,.. the press did not have as free reign as historian-journalists testify so as to buttress their present desires. The military held the press at chains lenght, and at will. It is optimum for us liberty or speech lovers?.... no. But I can live with it. The press will be under the predicates of Marshall law. A contingency of reporters will be escorted via Government interior ministry (yes, the same one that is in charge of the police force, stay with me people, it gets better). The interior press will have their reporting filtered for content under a UN review board. No incendiary material pro or against the government will be shown and only information-heavy content will be allowed via airwaves. Any satellite press transmissions from afar and other countries (Al-Jazeera) will be jammed with AWACS aircraft on a 24/7 basis until operation Iraqi kick-butt concludes.
(I feel compeled to clarify,-due to some post-posting coments- that most of my "dogs of war" rhetoric was my sarcastic musings getting the better of me... I'm not really espousing a fire and brimstone military mentality here...)
This step will be popular with Republicans but not too much with the Democrats whose nipples will pop at the thought of such draconian measures,... so here's a bone for the Demos....
Step 5
A final and fixed date for troop withdrawal will be announced in a major U.N. security council resolution not to exceed 36 months. I know the argument Limbaugh, so save it... "but the insurgents will just wait us out and take over the country once we leave"... not really. You pound the country with the tender loving care espoused in step 4 and there will not be one citizen who will put up with living in those conditions for such a long time. The snitchers will come out in force, and the lifeline of the insurgency being a free press and sympathetic populace will all but disappear. The date will tell the population, the world, and both parties the following
1. Its up to you, the Iraqi people. Keep the insurgence amongst you and they will rule you in 3 years.
2. The security and military forces will have a hard-date to get their s**t together and not a sunset more. If they are not ready, its their fault. A nation that cannot see the value of getting ready to be independent and sacrifice for its long-term existence deserves to be swallowed by the least common denominator of its people.
3. Such a time-line allows both the political and economic apparatus to be set, allows the security matrix to get a reality-check that the times of screwing around the gravy train are over.
This will piss-off the Republicans but hey, I said I was King so live with it. Besides the Demos got hosed on step 4.
Step 6.
A massive master web-site created and updated by the Coalition forces and reviewed for veracity by a commission consisting of military, government and UN observers will give the world a real-time situation room-type view of the events as they unfold. This will be the mother of all websites. The operational readiness of all Iraqi battalions will be graded by the hour if necessary. The civil infrastructure status will be on display... in fact every single and I mean EVERY single parameter of civil readiness will be there for all the world to hold the Government, the Coalitions Forces and the Iraqi Forces accountable day after day of their progress (or lack thereof). No press to spin it, no editorial content to make it better or worse than it really is. Nothing. The eyes of the world just has to look in their PC's every morning and see the progress, live and in living color.
Step 7.
Benchmark accomplishment dates for controls, infrastructure operational readiness, sector withdrawals, government decrees etc will be kept to the letter of the word. Each and every met date and benchmark will be loud and proud. The world will know that there is action, there is progress and that there is no equivocation in parameters. This will be run with the efficiency of the Borg (any Star Trek fans out there?...)
Step 8.
At the end of these steps, and once the final hour of the 36th month has passed by, the most coordinated effort of power transfer in the history of the planet will take place. Military flags will be lowered and raised, and pomp and circumstance will welcome a nation of Sunni-Shiite forced to do by yoke what they refused to do on their own.
If the government falls the next day, it wont be for lack of effort, lack of coordination, or sleeper cells that took 3 years off and cleaned the rust off to continue the hate and discontent. It will fall because the people, the PEOPLE did not understand the stakes, and do not deserve to be free.
Let the tower of Babel fall for all I care. Bring the boys home..........
There, it took me 45 mintues to do this and only a few Democrats and Republicans are really angry at me so I guess we can further define this to apease the fringe. You tired of bitching and moaning?... me too! Solutions is the way of the future. Talk to me about SOLUTIONS. I don't want to hear one more word about Bush. Yes, I will admit he is dumb, stubborn, whatever it is... he is the damn Anti-Christ if it can move this along. You happy now?... Good. Now where is the American "can-do" spirit? If Bush/Rumsfeld can't do it,.. then lets drive THIS bullhorn up their butts and see what happens. It can't be any worse that the current status quo.
I am open for business,..
Ok, my Kingdom just ran out of Quarters...now where the hell is my remote.......
9 comments:
Why do you want to spin off just Kurdistan? The idea I've heard is for 3 seperate provinces under a loose federation -- with an agreement to share oil revenues.
W-dervish: Welcome to casa de Truth-pain. Appreciate the comments.
I think the fact that the Kurds have been operating in a semi-autonmous way for decades (even under Sadam) says to me it would be a relatively fast mechanic to accomplish. The Sunnis on the other hand, being the favorites of Sadam never fully have had to live independently from the other 2 factions,... and the Shiites being so close to the Theocracy of Iran is not going to make anybody comfy if they go solo. I am open to considerations of other combination of partitions,.. it just seemed the fastest possible situation under my self-impossed 36 month time-table.
Cheers!
p.s. I think the loose Federation works IF you had 3 factions that had at least a cursory cultural afinity towards the others. The Kurds are really playing neutral because they HAVE to, ..if it were up to them they would have had their nation long ago. Why fit a square into a hole?
In your post of 5/31/06 you wrote in part: "....giving semi-salient alternatives to his policies."
With due respect, I disagree with that: It is the citizen's job to sound the alarm of errant policy. It is the people we duly elected, jobs to formulate policy to address our dissatisfaction, and if that is not done, dispose of them in the next election. We did elect them after all, to represent us. We can suggest, but our primary purpose in Democracy must always be to be on guard against abuse, and to keep blowing the bullhorn until it is corrected.
On to this post: "Press presence", and "too much oversight" seems to come in for the majority of the blame, per your thesis, for our problems. You go further to sugggest that "the dogs of war" (my term) be unleashed behind closed doors to correct inequities.
I suppose that would work. So would good old genecide, nuking them, a number of things come to mind. But then we'd be no better than what we're taking out, would we? Do we want that for a goal?
However, you asked for solutions: solutions you shall get.
Sending in enough troops to get the job done, to begin with, giving them sufficient protection, and listening to career military men when you (Rumsfeld) have absolutely no war experience.
Here's another solution: Slow down, and think this out. (Kissinger's exact words).
Had either solution been used, my Son would very likely be here with his wife and childen today, instead of mixed with the sand in a red mist, with no body part ever found. (He was a Fighter Pilot. He went in head first.)
Finally, our "mission" has changed about two thousand times. It was never to fight an insurgency. It was to despose of WMD's, bring Saddam's ass AND ours, out of there. Period!! I can not believe the people buying into this crock of shit!!
If it sounds like I'm taking you to task a bit, you're right. My Son gave me that right with his life. I taught him to do things right the FIRST time.
Thanks for the temporary use of your throne.
Unhappy American:
First my sincere condolences for your loss. This ex military man knows there are no words of solace nor will I try to understand what these events have caused you and yours to grieve. With respect I salute his service and never take for granted his loss. I send my sincere blessings to your family and his.
My writing style at times varies from tongue in cheek humor to sarcasm so as to lighten what is normally heavy topics.
I dont believe in genocide, and I dont believe in action without oversight. But I do believe in the military chain of command and the quality of honor of the US military. I served, I know the protocols very well.
If my prose was exagerated in lecture it was to accentuate the need to conduct war, not politically correct hit and runs. I am not espousing anarchy or war without quarter,.. but my humble and probable solitary view is that the press at this point is a hindrance to success and not an enabler. It is my opinion mind you, not a declaration of know it all. As a libertarian I value the open press more than my conservative brethern.
I have been against this war since the rumblings began in 2000. My intent in this post was to stop the contant bush-bashing (whom never has recieved my vote) and to begin the process of interchanging solutions to such a vexing problem.
If yours was the first idea to grace my post then I give you my sincere thanks, my never-ending welcome to express as you may feel, and my sincere hopes that my style and candor did not offend what can only be your bery best intentions of trying to find answers.
I thank you kindly and with utter deference. God bless.
i agree with you on the kurds- and most of your other points. my biggest problem is the secrecy angle. i hear what you are saying about the press- but i think holding them to the same rules that applied in any of the previous wars is the way it should be. we did not have a need to censor our press in any of the 20th century wars and i think it is a bad precedent now.
as for the people in iraq- it is hard to govern yourselves when you have 1)never asked for a democracy and 2)don't really know what one is. i think that we should definitely get the hell out of there- for reasons you already know. however, it is unreasonable to expect a nation who lived under dictatorship for decades to right itself in time for our election season(repub strategy not yours). take any of the former communist nations, for example and they are struggling decades later to get a working government. i just don't think that it is fair to expect the iraqis to just do things the american way and things will work out. especially given their location.
they do want us out though- and that being said- i agree that they are going to have to figure out how to go it alone. but- if that means that they figure it out and it goes the way that the palestinians did- we have to suck it up and deal because we made it.
so- my next question is- for the next issue- domestic spying on citizens? that's a burr in my saddle.
Betmo: as I was writing point step 4 I thought about you :)
I think my unique perspective comes from reading many books on Eisenhower. Most people dont know that there was an insurgency in Germany much the same as it is in Iraq now. The way he dealt with it was, shall we say, in a most original manner and would have never flown with today/s vulture press. There has ALWAYS been censorship in the press. It was only the advent of the Vietnam War and the power of Walter Cronkite banging away at the Johnson Administration that changed the paradigm of press coverage forever.
In my king-for-a-day posting I just turned back the clock and did what has always been done since the dawn of modern journalism. Read excepts from the Bios of Eisenhower, Patton, Montgomery, Marshall... they all mention the press as a dual sword of both protection of liberties, and an enambler of opposition public relations. I am not an absolutist when it comes to free press. When such freedom (albeit localized)is doing a disservice to my war stragegy, that is where i have to prioritize my ideals.
As always, your views make put my thinking cap on..... :)
As to the poeple in Iraq, heck as to most of the middle east, sans Israel. The idea of democracy is anathema to them. It is such a foreign concept that they equate it to a western evil and not a Platonic epiphany. You are correct, this whole thing to me is an exercise in futility, hence my comment that if the government falls on month 36 plus day one, then it will not be a surprise for me. They get what they deserve.
i really don't think that we should impose democracy on the rest of the world. yes- it is a nice sentiment- and we do well with it here. not every culture melds well with it. islam- not so much. not saying it couldn't work- but we really have no right to be snooty and offended if other nations reject our lifestyle. especially----when we have attempted to force it on them. bit like a square peg in a round hole. just a quick note- i am watching charlie and the chocolate factory. love willy wonka with gene wilder. had to see the remake. cheerio.
True. Ive always hated the fact that we feel like we have to "Evangelize" democracy. Who gave Democracy the title of "best of goverment for everything"?
I dream of the day we can just let the world evolve without us holding everybody's hand...
enjoy the flick :)
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