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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: unclewest who wrote (219369)	9/12/2007 11:48:42 AM
From: ahhaha	Respond to of 793895

Victory in Iraq will occur when the Iraqi people acknowledge the legitimacy of their elected government. They acknowledge that now. They just dispute its components. This is natural. After all, don't we have a continual war going on in the US on similar grounds? This is the nature of democracy. I'm frustrated because President Bush hasn't taken the fight to the 'crats, but lets them freely shoot at him, although I do admit that his pacifist strategy wins big here if it wins in Iraq at all. Victory in Iraq will be obvious when the Iraqi people stop supporting the insurgents and take active measures to eliminate them. Didn't you hear Petraeus state that the insurgents ARE the Iraqi people. This is natural. The struggle for power always exists in all governments. Stable nations constrain themselves in this struggle by conceding power for awhile, hoping later to regain it. The 'crats say we ought not get involved in a civil war. Petraeus has shown we're not, but allowing that process to naturally work itself out. The purpose of the US in Iraq however Crocker and Petreaus try to deny it, is to thwart the intervention of Al Qaeda, and to prevent them from forming a political foothold inside a nation where they have no national identity. Unfortunately, as long as we remain focused on the conventional military piece, the real and only victory available will continue to elude us. The US is hardly applying conventional military force in Iraq since there's no conventional appearing enemy there. Part of the US plan to stop Al Qaeda is a plan, and the only known way to defeat guerrilla warfare, that attracts the enemy to one spot on the globe where they may be confronted. That's very difficult when they're hiding in sleeper cells. As time goes on the combatants in such cells lose identity and purpose which can only be restored when they apply their skills in a theatre where there's most potential, in Iraq. This is the unspoken key to the Iraq strategy: attract the flies to the brown stuff. Our entire government needs a class on thinking outside the box. But to know they are thinking outside the box, they will first need a lesson on how to determine what is inside the box. Petraeus has shown the US knows what's inside the box. But Petreaus is just beginning to learn about and comprehend the synergy of one ODA. His training will not allow him to get so far out of the conventional military box to put together such a solution. I haven't heard one word from him that indicates the US is pursuing conventional warfare. He hardly needs to do that since there is no conventional opponent. As for special forces, ho hum. I could lecture for hours about how ineffectual they were in Vietnam. Special forces have one mission: change destructive attitudes among the people, non-combatants, into constructive ones, to prevent them from becoming combatants. That's not applicable in Iraq. Just about everyone in Iraq has been forced to become a combatant. Besides, it's a little late for that approach. Contrary to the opinions expressed by air head 'crat senators the issue in Iraq is not about progress to political unity and national reconciliation, a tops down approach, but how the ongoing struggle for power among individuals will resolve itself into a peaceful struggle within one government that marks the process in all stable nations, a bottoms up approach. The difference here is accepting what we all should do, fight, rather than push what we all think we should do: not fight.