John McCain's Military Miscalculation
The Armed Services Committee hearings today were very interesting.
Senator John McCain wasn't very happy. He didn't hear what he wanted
to hear. It didn't help that it was coming from General Abizaid, one of the
most respected military men we've got. Abizaid is the man who bitch slapped the president and his Administration by saying we were indeed still in a war in Iraq and a guerrilla war, at that.
If McCain thinks he can be the I didn't want to redeploy, so don't blame me for Iraq presidential candidate, Abizaid just drove a stake through that campaign talking point.
Senator
Clinton asked about the idea of partitioning Iraq, which went nowhere. Both
Abizaid and State Department coordinator for Iraq, David M. Satterfield, blew
it out of the water.
Senator Biden is going to have to regroup.
Levin had the bottom line: “We cannot save the Iraqis from themselves.”
However, I got the feeling that everyone is hoping beyond hopes that we can
still salvage Iraq, with a great degree of effort made to paint a picture that
we can't afford to leave right now no matter what the voters said. I've got
to wonder if the military men like Zinni and Batiste, both of whom are saying
we shouldn't redeploy, aren't also thinking about the morale of the military.
Like I've talked about on my show quite a bit, as well as on this blog, the
soldiers sent to Iraq on one mission, which never had a strategy attached, are
going to be very angry once they're home and all the desert sand settles.
After the election, it's untenable to expect the American people to
“stay the course,” even if it's called something else.
In a somber assessment, Maples, the DIA chief, later told the panel that
Iraqi nationalists, former members of Hussein's Baath Party and his armed
forces, angry Sunnis, Islamic jihadists, foreign fighters and al-Qaeda adherents
“provide an overlapping, complex and multi-polar Sunni insurgent and
terrorist environment.” In addition, Shiite militias, some Kurdish Peshmerga
guerrillas and “extensive criminal activity further contribute to violence,
instability and insecurity,” he said in a prepared statement.“Although a significant breakdown of central authority has not occurred,
Iraq has moved closer to this possibility primarily because of weak governance,
increasing security challenges, and no agreement on a national compact,”
Maples said. “The perception of unchecked violence is creating an atmosphere
of fear and hardening sectarianism which is empowering militias and vigilante
groups, hastening middle-class exodus and shaking confidence in government
and security forces. Sectarian violence, a weak central government, problems
in basic services and high unemployment are causing more Iraqis to turn to
sectarian groups, militias and insurgents for basic needs, imperiling Iraqi
unity.”
Bob
Baer's assessment is equally grim.
Tomorrow very early we'll get the results of the Murtha leadership fight. Murtha's
ABSCAM involvement isn't pretty, but he was exonerated, it was over 25 years
ago and it means nothing going forward.
Speaker-elect Pelosi is setting down the law on ethics
and Murtha will have to follow her lead. Period. As majority leader, Murtha
will be on his best behavior, believe it. If he isn't there will be hell to pay, because Pelosi will not cover for anyone. But her first job is to do something about Iraq and she knows Murtha is the man who can help her get it done.
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