"Al Klein" <rukbat@pern.invalid> wrote in message
news:of8ge35l0bjhok10m4je1rdj73lr2q206d@4ax.com...

Okay, has everyone heard and understood what Petraeus said? Let's
find out.

Last year at this time, Bush was still totally opposed to ANY
draw-down. Exhaust the troops, run out of troops, see the situation
deteriorating further - none of that mattered. He WAS NOT going to
reduce our numbers in Iraq.

He kept getting flack for that, even from some Republicans.

In order to improve the situation over there, we sent an additional
30,000 troops to Iraq in a VERY short time. Where did we put them all
in such a short time? Where did we get all the additional food, fuel
and other supplies in such a short time? No matter - the important
thing was getting a lot of troops from here to there in a very short
time.

Did they improve anything? Anbar province is pretty peaceful now. Oh,
wait a minute - the Sunnis who live there started getting rid of al
Qaeda LAST SEPTEMBER - before Bush had any notion of a "surge". they
have a police force now that actually works. Well, yes but, at THEIR
insistence, it's 100% Sunni.

Now Petraeus (and, we can bet, Bush) is talking about drawing down
30,000 troops in JUST TEN MONTHS! Troops that weren't there last
year. Troops that did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to stem the violence, or to
cause Sunnis and Shia to change completely from people who have
considered tribe and sect more important for FOUR THOUSAND YEARS, to
people who will forget their tribe or sect for national (the 5th most
important thing to them, after family, tribe, sect and religion)
interests.

But WE CAN BRING THE TROOPS HOME. Well, some of them. Very slowly.
We can't send 30,000 troops to houses they were already living in last
year at this time as quickly as we could send them to a country that
had no provisions for them when we started sending them over there.

This is like a store marking a suit up from $100 to $200 and then
running a 25% off sale. It's considered an illegal scam in most
places but, evidently, in Foggy Bottom, Scam is the only game they
know how to play.
--

I pointed this out, albeit more briefly, to my wife last night as the local
news reported on Bush's grand upcoming announcement that we can now bring
some troops home. It's the same troops that were added for the surge and
they said from the beginning that next summer was the maximum time they'd be
able to keep them deployed.

They keep putting lipstick on this pig and think that no one will notice
that it's still a pig.

They keep putting lipstick on this pig and think that no one will notice
that it's still a pig.

On Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:41:46 -0400, Al Klein wrote:

Now Petraeus (and, we can bet, Bush) is talking about drawing down
30,000 troops in JUST TEN MONTHS! Troops that weren't there last year.

You forgot to add, troops that were already scheduled to leave about that
time *anyway*.

It's time the Democrats grew a set and refused to fund anything but a
withdrawal...

This whole thing is growing more and more reminiscent of Vietnam. Most
people don't remember, but during the Vietnam War one large province,
My Tau, was pacified and by the late 60s really quite Communist-free.
Every time a politican or military type wanted to point at progress in
the war, he'd invoke My Tau and claim that it was possible to pacify
an area, purge it of VC and see it prosper in freedom. What they left
out was the fact that a large percentage of the people of MyTau were
members of the Hua Hao religious/political sect. They were adamantly
anti-communist, but also anti-government in general. They tolerated
Saigon because it left them alone and they cooperated with both the
American forces and the S. Viets to purge their area of the Communists
they loathed. One thing about the Hua Hao, in contrast to the groups
competing in Iraq, they were honest, direct and hard working,
generally good citizens. They didn't kill their Buddhist or Catholic
neighbors. The central government still leaves them largely alone.

Today, everyone is pointing at Anbar province and claiming that
pacification of Iraq is possible. What made it possible is that the
Sunnis in Anbar, who loathe us but are willing to use us, made a pact
of convenience with the American forces to crush Al Qaida. That
doesn't mean they love democracy, they'll stop abusing their women, or
they'll support the Baghdad government. They're still greasy criminals
out to kill anyone in their way, deal drugs, or do any of a host of
obnoxious things. They're not the only ones who've used us, either.
Shiites have followed and "pacified" parts of towns where American
forces have driven out or destroyed the local Sunni militia.