Well, it appears that American troops won't be singing "I'll Be Home for Christmas (2006, 2007, 2008)."
I'll (Not) Be Home for Christmas
I'll be home for Christmas
But only in my dreams,
Extended tours and canceled leaves,
An endless hell, it seems...
I guess we all knew that, eventually, the Bushies would find someone, anyone, in the military who would agree with their insane strategy to add more troops... Just enough to get more killed but not enough to make a difference. (The military's own experts suggest that adding anything less than hundreds of thousands is an exercise in futility.)
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And the myth that these added troops would be a "short term" application while Iraqi forces roll in to replace U.S. forces has also been shot down by military experts, including Lt. Col. John Nagl who is in charge of training the U.S. trainers, and Maj. Gen. William Nash (ret.), who both estimate that, in best-case scenarios (a stable government, no sectarian division), it would take a minimum of a decade to train a competent Iraqi army.
So in this holiday season when so many of us experience the joys and the frustrations of dealing with our families, let's keep in mind our friends and neighbors who have been plunked down smack dab in the middle of a thankless, no-win situation by leaders who, frankly, don't give a damn about them. Leaders who place politics ahead of reality and who don't think twice about sacrificing the lives of their fellow citizens to cover their own failings.
We might have it bad at a family meal with some loony, wingnut relatives, but we can walk out our front doors and not be faced with hundreds of thousands of people who hate us and want nothing more than to kill us.
I'll be home for Christmas, but, unfortunately, many more of our fellow citizens won't be. At least not in one piece. And not this Christmas or next Christmas or even the Christmas after that.
So hug your loved ones. Even those loony, wingnut relatives. We don't have it so bad.