I think this pretty much says it all:
What the group desperately needed was at least one their members to have been in the military and had recent experience in Iraq. The problem with having an entire panel with no one under the age of 67 is that none of them could possibly know what the situation is actually like on the ground in Iraq. Now I concede that it is possible to have a good understanding of things as they stand in Iraq but unless you interact with the people of Iraq and spend a year or years of your life on ground you cannot possibly have a complete picture of the situation.(via)
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We cannot appease our enemies and we cannot continue to cut and run when the going gets tough. As it stands in the world right now our enemies view America as a country full of queasy people who are inclined to cut and run when things take a turn for the worse. Just as the Tet Offensive was the victory that led to our failure in Vietnam our victories in Iraq now are leading to our failure in the Middle East. How many more times must we fight to fail? I feel like all of my efforts (30 months of deployment time) and the efforts of all my brothers in arms are all for naught. I thought old people were supposed to be more patient than a 24 year old but apparently I have more patience for our victory to unfold in Iraq than 99.9 percent of Americans. Iraq isn’t fast food-you can’t have what you want and have it now. To completely change a country for the first time in it’s entire history takes time, and when I say time I don’t mean 4 years.
Talking doesn’t solve anything with a crazed people, bullets do and we need to be given a chance to work our military magic. Like I told a reporter buddy of mine: War sucks but a world run by Islamofacists sucks more.
This is probably my last post on this subject. I think this group is pretty much done, they have been ridiculed by the left and the right and though the media appear to love them, they have lost all kinds of credibility.
And if only President Bush was like Scrappleface's version of Bush, we would probably win this war:
Rather than accept all of the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations as a package, White House sources said today that President George Bush leans toward a hybrid version of the panel’s major suggestions, which include pulling back all combat brigades over the next 15 months, and starting direct talks with Iran and Syria.Yes, targeted diplomacy, that's the only kind of diplomacy that works. And while I'm speaking of diplomacy, one of our commenters made this remark:
Under the Bush hybrid plan, most combat brigades in Iraq would pull back to the neighboring countries on the east and west to conduct “high-level, targeted diplomacy with Iran and Syria on a variety of fronts of mutual concern.”
Generally speaking, the public consistently favors diplomacy over force in foreign affairs. According to our Foreign Policy Index, 61% of Americans favor more emphasis on diplomatic and economic methods when it comes to fighting terrorism.What? Let me get this straight, the public (a large percentage of public) think we should negotiate with people who behead people and blow themselves up. I can't believe that such a large percentage of the American public is that stupid.
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