The New York Times decides now to report on Democratic plans in Iraq
Betsy's Page
Now that their party has been elected, the Times decides it's time to actually look at what leading Democrats have been proposing about setting up a definite time table for withdrawing from Iraq. And guess what, they find that military analysts think it's a lousy idea.
<<< But some current and retired military officers say the situation in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq is too precarious to start thinning out the number of American troops. In addition, they worry that some Shiite leaders would see the reduction of American troops as an opportunity to unleash their militias against the Sunnis and engage in wholesale ethnic cleansing to consolidate their control of the capital.
John Batiste, a retired Army major general who also joined in the call for Mr. Rumsfeld’s resignation, described the Congressional proposals for troop withdrawals as “terribly naïve.”
“There are lots of things that have to happen to set them up for success,” General Batiste, who commanded a division in Iraq, said in an interview, describing the Iraqi government. “Until they happen, it does not matter what we tell Maliki.”
Before considering troop reductions, General Batiste said, the United States needs to take an array of steps, including fresh efforts to alleviate unemployment in Iraq, secure its long and porous borders, enlist more cooperation from tribal sheiks, step up the effort to train Iraq’s security forces, engage Iraq’s neighbors and weaken, or if necessary, crush the militias.
Indeed, General Batiste has recently written that pending the training of an effective Iraqi force, it may be necessary to deploy tens of thousands of additional “coalition troops.” General Batiste said he hoped that Arab and other foreign nations could be encouraged to send troops. >>>
Just as Bush's supporters have been arguing, setting deadlines for withdrawing troops will worsen the situtation there. Perhaps, we shouldn't be turning to Senator Carl Levin for our military strategic thinking.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are looking forward to their opportunity today to question military leaders before the Armed Services Committee in the Senate.
<<< Emboldened by election gains and the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Democrats want to press a top Army general and other advisers to President Bush on beginning to pull troops out of Iraq.
Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, and David Satterfield, the State Department's senior adviser on Iraq, were scheduled to testify before the House and Senate Armed Services committees on Wednesday, followed by CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Maples.
"I would hope and expect that we're going to be given some indication at that hearing that they see the need to change direction," said Sen. Carl Levin, who will take control of the Senate Armed Services Committee next year.
"My displeasure with the president, he doesn't understand the urgency of this," incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told The Washington Post. "It's all victory for him, but I don't know what that means anymore in Iraq. I do know what we are doing now doesn't work." >>>
Does anyone really think that Bush doesn't "understand the urgency" of the situation in Iraq? He might have different ideas from Harry Reid on what to do, but the man gets daily briefings on the situation there. I haven't seen Harry Reid propose anything that will work - does he understand the urgency of what will happen if the U.S. starts announcing a pullout schedule as people like Levin are urging.
Do they really think that we should be running military strategy out of Senate hearings rooms? Do they not understand anything about military history? Don't they remember that the Constitutional Convention decided that the powers of a Commander-in-Chief should be vested in the Executive branch because they had experienced a war, the American Revolution, run out of Congress and rejected that model for the country?
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