E, it seems odd that you want me to dissect Dowd's assertions, which are merely that, assertions. No evidence is adduced, she just covers the situation with sweeping generalities. Take this example,
Our exhausted and frustrated soldiers are in a hideously difficult environment they're not familiar with, dealing with a culture America only dimly understands
Who says our troops are exhausted? frustrated? in a hideously difficult environment? The marine who wrote from Al Hillah in the WSJ a couple of days ago didn't sound like any of these things. Of course, he was in the Shia part of Iraq. Likewise, by all accounts, the Kurdish part of Iraq sounds like everything is going great, with full cooperation from the locals. The problem is in Baghdad (where most of the population used to work for the government) and in the Sunni triangle.
Even there, I don't know if the troops are actually exhausted, frustated and in a hideously difficult environment, or are conducting mopping-up operations against a guerilla enemy like the professionally trained soldiers they are with a reasonable measure of success. I suppose some must be exhausted and frustrated, but I don't know how many. To say that the environment is "hideously difficult" implies that we don't have good intelligence and are not getting much cooperation from Iraqis, but I don't know that either.
Now I know that this generalization does not fit the soldiers in two-thirds of Iraq, where we are getting great cooperation, and I don't know if it does fit the soliders in the one-third of Iraq or not. And Dowd cites no evidence whatsoever, just makes a sweeping generalization.
Furthermore, Dowd's generalizations contradict the accounts of other observers, including troops on the ground, Iraqi bloggers, Iraqi reporters, and other Western observers such as Tom Friedman. So all I can say is that Dowd's assertions do not fit the current evidence as I know it - they take the bad news, and call it all the news. Is she right to take such a pessimistic outlook? This comes down to whom you trust as a Mideast observer. It seems sensible to me to trust those who've gone to Iraq over those who sit in Washington with political axes to grind.
I could go into detail about her other points, but it would be repetitive. As for critiquing her arguments, I cannot, because she offers no evidence or argument, just makes assetions. |
