Staying is not the answer (by John Murtha)

Staying the course in Iraq is not an option or a policy. I believe we must begin discussions for an immediate re-deployment of U.S. forces from Iraq. I believe it can be accomplished in as little as six months, but it must be consistent with the safety of U.S. troops.

The public is way ahead of Congress and is thirsting for a new direction. Sixty-six percent of the responses I have received are in favor of my plan. The public knows this war cannot be won with words. Most agree the insurgency cannot be won militarily. The Iraqis themselves must be the driving force. Yet we have lost their hearts and minds. America wants and deserves real answers. What is the clear definition of success? Is there a plan? How much longer and how many more lives? In short, what is the end game?

Aside from the fact that the original plan to win the peace was flawed, two-and-a-half years later the indices that would determine the ultimate success of a stable Iraq have not improved. Electricity and oil production are below pre-war levels, unemployment remains at 60% and insurgent incidents have increased from 150 to more than 700 per week. Average monthly death rates of U.S. servicemembers have grown since the Abu Ghraib prison scandal from one per day to almost four. Despite the addition of more troops, more equipment and more money, Iraq and the region have become less stable over time. Global terrorism has risen. What is more of the same going to do for Iraq or the region?

Some claim the answer is to put even more troops on the ground, but many of our troops are already on their third deployment. Our Army cannot recruit to its current target, even as recruiting standards are lowered. We cannot do this without a draft. My plan calls for a more rapid turnover of Iraq to the Iraqi people. Gen. George Casey said in a September hearing that "the perception of occupation in Iraq is a major driving force behind the insurgency." We have become a catalyst for violence. A recent poll showed that 80% of the Iraqi public are "strongly opposed" to the presence of coalition troops; 45% believe attacks against Americans are justified.



http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-20-oppose_x.htm

And a portent of things to come. Be interesting to see who gets nominated, drafted, or claims the other parts in this classic, religious psychodrama.

Washington spent most of the Revolutionary War retreating.
The guerillas fighting us in Iraq do too.

Unfortunately, the US command authority does not contain or listen to any competent military leaders. In fact, they usually get fired for "speaking out of turn".

They know they can't stand and hold territory against US troops, and they don't even try. They know they can't beat us in a war of attrition, and they aren't trying to do that either. By any conventional measure of war, ie- taking territory, comparison of casualties, we are kicking their asses.

So why are they winning? Because they know that in order for us to go after them, we have to create collateral damage in the form of civilian casualties, erroneous killings and the like. They also know that as the percieved underdogs, they can use methods we cannot, such as murder and torture. When they use such methods, the response is, well, what do you expect of such people? When we use such methods, there is outrage (as there should be).

This is fourth generation warfare, and they are winning, because it is not about "winning hearts and minds" and it is not about "taking territory" or "killing more of them than us". It is about nipping at the heels of the giant until he wearies of the fight and goes home.

And in that measure of the war, the only measure that really matters, they are winning. We will be going home soon.

When we leave, the Iraqi people will not prove fertile ground for the growth of an outfit like Al-Qaida. Why not? Because such an outfit thrives on oppression, and in a post-US Iraq, no one is going to percieve them as "oppressed". It will be tough for them to recruit muslims to kill other muslims, and their methods will invite the kind of backlash from ordinary Iraqis that our presence now discourages.

Once we're gone, the insurgents become an Iraqi problem to solve, not a US problem to solve. And the Iraqis will solve it in a much more brutal and effective way than we can.