War Without End
by Helen Thomas
WA****NGTON - Surprise, surprise. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S.
commander
in Iraq, wants to put a halt to any more troop withdrawals for the
foreseeable future.
The highly politicized Petraeus seemed to be dutifully following his White
House marching orders when he testified before congressional committees
earlier this week.
Under his scenario, there will be no drawdown of U.S. forces in that
strife-ridden country until President Bush leaves office.
That's fine with Bush, who obviously has no intention of ending this
futile
war on his watch. Apparently feeling no responsibility for starting the
war,
Bush is planning to pass the Iraqi debacle on to his successor.
You can forget accountability for the yet-to-be defined U.S. military
mission which has taken more than 4,000 American lives, possibly a million
Iraqi lives and destroyed a country.
Think of President Harry Truman and President Lyndon B. Johnson, who both
understood that war was too im****tant to be left to the generals in the
field.
Truman fired the popular Gen. Douglas MacArthur because he disobeyed
orders
in the Korean War. Johnson knew that he had reached the endgame in Vietnam
when Gen. William Westmoreland, the top commander in Vietnam, requested
240,000 more troops in 1968 for the prolonged war that also could not be
won.
Those two presidents finally drummed up enough courage to just say "no."
Petraeus is too smart to be pinned down on when the U.S. can pull out more
troops, especially when there's been a new flare-up of sectarian violence
in
Iraq. Let's say he is careful and self-protective, trying to hold on.
When Petraeus testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee,
Chairman
Carl Levin, D-Mich., told him: "What you have given to your chain of
command
is a plan which has no end to it."
The general replied: "Withdrawing too many forces too quickly could
jeopardize the progress of the past year."
Congress should wake up before it's too late and listen to retired Army
Lt.
Gen. William Odom, former director of the National Security Agency.
NSA is the nation's largest intelligence agency which monitors messages
from
all over the world.
Odom testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week and
urged an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. He claimed the troop surge
(escalation) has prolonged instability in Iraq and that the only "sensible
strategy" is "rapid withdrawal."
In a separate speech last week, the outspoken general said, "We are
certainly to blame for the chaos in Iraq" but "we do not have the physical
means to prevent it."
Odom said the military situation in Iraq is worsened by "the proliferation
of armed groups under local military chiefs who follow a proliferating
number of political bosses."
"We are witnessing . the road to Balkanization of Iraq, that is political
fragmentation," Odom said
War makes strange bedfellows.
The Sunnis are now on our side - if we continue to pay them enough, of
course. They would be happy to see the U.S. attack ****ite-dominated Iran.
Odom said those new-found friends threaten to defect unless their fees are
increased.
"The concern we hear the president and his aides express about a residual
base left for al-Qaida if we withdraw is utter nonsense, " Odom said. "The
Sunnis will destroy al-Qaida if we leave Iraq," he added. "The Kurds will
not allow them in their region and the ****ites "detest" al-Qaida, he said.
Although the U.S. economic recession is expected to dominate the
presidential election race, Iraq won't be on the back burner if the
Petraeus
hearings are any guide.
The three presidential hopefuls - Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Hillary
Clinton, D-N.Y. and Barack Obama, D-Ill. - showed up at the high-profile
hearings where Petraeus testified.
As expected, staunch-war sup****ter McCain said any promise to withdraw
U.S.
forces "would constitute a failure of political and moral leader****p."
In their disappointing comments, the Democratic rivals were as cautious as
Petraeus.
Clinton said "it's time to begin an orderly withdrawal of our troops."
Obama told Petraeus that while he wants U.S. troops out of Iraq, he "would
not initiate a precipitous withdrawal."
Ohio's GOP Sen. George Voinovich seemed to express the frustration best
when
he told Petraeus: "The American people have had it up to here."
Helen Thomas is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. E-mail:
helent@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
2008 Hearst Newspapers.
Lincoln and FDR understood what it meant to be commander in chief. Sadly
Bush does not.
Bush's hiding behind General Petraeus is a shameful abdication of
presidential leader****p.
My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to announced that I've
just signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever.
We begin bombing in five minutes." - Ronald Reagan
It's almost as if the punks think it's funny.
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