They are what Tom Friedman of The New York Times calls the "non-deterrables." If those non-deterrables are already in their country, they will be able to wait you out until you go home.
Geezus... The SS were "non-deterrables", but Germany still fell and the Nazi influence gradually purged from the nation..
For those who haven't seen it yet, I suggest renting/buying the "Band of Brothers" DVD collection. Spent my weekend finally watching it (that is, when I wasn't cleaning up from Isabel)...
Maybe Cleland needs to watch it and then tell us how he would have viewed THAT war, and the determined, well disciplined, EXTREMELY competent, and heavily armed enemy we faced then...
From the perspectives of many folks, THAT was a quagmire. The US taking on two military juggernauts by effectively by itself (not discounting the strategic role played by the Brits using US made equipment). Thinking they would be in Berlin by Xmas, 1944 only to see that dream fall apart as Hitler launched "Watch on the Rhine" with 250,000 troops..
For a former chopper pilot fron Vietnam, one would think Cleland would have some sense of (depth) perception on this issue.
The "exit strategy" is to do just what Democrats have been crying for the US to do in nations like Somalia, Bosnia, and Liberia, nation building and spreading democracy.
And he didn't seem to mind the "NO EXIT STRATEGY" Bosnia mission THAT CONTINUES to require US troop deployments to carry out, PRIMARILY Reserve and National Guard, pulled away for tours of up to 9 months...
Task Force Eagle is STILL there in the Balkans.. And Cleland went over there in 1998, 5 years ago...
So if he wants to gripe about "exit strategies", I'd suggest he'd better quit playing politics with the lives of our soldiers in Iraq...
In fact, it's these kinds of defeatist statements, by Cleland and his ilk, which only serve to encourage opposition to the US presence there...
The Baathists aren't stupid.. They know that the Democrats are itching for a means of "sticking it" to Bush over Iraq. So they will attack when they see that it might push democrats and the peacenik at any cost crowd into openly opposing the war and creating a US withdrawal and power vacuum that they can move take advantage of.
THAT harms our troops FAR MORE than anything else because Cleland and his ilk are fostering the belief in the Baathist minds that THEY might just be able to win if they continue resisting long enough..
This is a war... an ugly war.. just like all the rest we've fought in.. But folks like Cleland are happy to play politics with soldiers lives in order to advance their own agenda...
Does Cleland think the UN is going to do anything here? Not likely.. Few countries have the inclination, the money, or the available troops to invest in that nation... So we're left to go it alone for the most part (especially after today's bombing in Baghdad).
It's funny that the US might just find the Russians becoming greater allies than Europe... Putin, at least, has considered sending Russian troops to Iraq.
Hawk |
