DEFEAT IN IRAQ

(This is a letter to the editor, Corvallis, OR
Gazette Times, dtd. 3/3/07)

Charles R. Nelson wrote (G. T. 3/1/07):
"Congressional Democrats have a new
strategy for accomplishing the defeat of the
United States in Iraq; it is called 'slow
bleeding'." Many of us prefer slow to fast
bleeding, Charles, and would much prefer no
bleeding at all! At least when the bleeding is
unnecessary, pointless and futile! That was
part of the message of last fall's election,
which gave us a Democratic House and
Senate for just that reason. Or did somebody
miss that message? (I mean besides Bush?)

As for "accomplishing the defeat of the U. S.
in Iraq," Mr. Bush has already seen to that,
as was reported by the Iraq Study Group (ISG),
which was not led by Democrats, and which
found the situation there "dire and deteriora-
ting." They advised getting out, and suggested
the best possible ways of doing just that. Tom
Ricks, in Fiasco, explains masterfully how and
why we lost it in the early days of the occupa-
tion, giving rise to the insurgency and civil war.
Gen. Casey was removed for telling the truth:
a military solution is no longer in the cards,
and the presence of our troops feeds the
insurgency.

So we can go on bleeding at the appalling rate
we are seeing now, and for as long as we are
willing to keep feeding our bravest and best into
that meat grinder. We can't be actually defeated
militarily in Iraq -- only politically. Nor can we
win there. We can just continue to be chewed
up. That fits the definition of insanity!

We aren't hurting the terrorists, as Mr. Nelson
believes. We are helping them big-time with
recruiting and on-the-job training. The ISG
recognized this, as did the latest National
Intelligence Estimate, which observes:
"rather than contributing to eventual victory
in the global counterterrorism struggle, the
situation in Iraq has worsened the U. S.
position" (emphasis mine). If they are
gaining, how is that helping us? It doesn't
compute!

We are also helping finance them, as Seymour
Hersh reports in the 3/5/07 New Yorker. (He
also first broke the story on Abu Ghraib and
Mai Lai.) He found that we are supplying
money through the Saudis to Sunnis in Lebanon
who are fighting Hezbollah (which is Shia).
Those anti-Shia Sunnis in Lebanon have ties to
al Qaeda (also Sunni). So we are stoking terrorism
(and financing it) in Lebanon, while helping and
training and financing Shias to fight Sunni terrorists
in Iraq! Will the real terrorist fighters please
stand up? We can't tell the players without a
program! Can someone find and apply the brakes
on this runaway truck, before it goes over a cliff
in Iran? Gen. Petraeus, who is heading the
"surge" told our own Sen. Gordon Smith that
it (the surge) has a one in four chance of
succeeding. That's the odds you have of filling a
four-card flush in a poker game! But we are
gambling people's lives. Think about it.

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net