The DLC and Leon Panetta are sounding not just like the Republicans, but like the neocons, regarding Iraq. They believe the US must continue to deploy as many as 100,000 troops there for the foreseeable future.
If so-called "Centrist" Democrats from the DLC have their way, we will join forces with Bush and the neocons and occupy Iraq for a decade or more.
Just this morning I read that former Clinton Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, a member of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, said that even with a decision to withdraw from Iraq, the country is so unprepared to take over its own governing that as many as 100,000 U.S. troops will have to remain for "a long period of time" He said that "even most of the Democratic candidates" see the reality of that.
Panetta's remarks echoed those of Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, who at the recent DLC meeting in Nashville, said "Understand: We are not leaving Iraq," adding that there will be a need for tens of thousands of troops in Iraq to ensure stability for some years. "We're not leaving as long as we are dependent on that oil," he repeated.
So the Democrats think we should keep 100,000 US troops in Iraq in the middle of a civil war indefinitely. Hearing this, he neocons must think they died and went to heaven, or wherever neocons go when they die.
We don’t have the troops to support this permanent "surge" and maintain readiness for other contingencies. 100,000 US troops will have no effect on a country the size of California, with a population of 27 million where a vast majority of the populace want us to leave.
If we have a neverending surge, the army will face tremendous manpower problems, moreso even than at present. Career soldiers will resign rather than face deployment to Iraq every 18 months or so and recruitment will fall off until most volunteers are gang members. Perhaps we can replace the military with mercenaries. I'm sure Blackwater is ready to step in, Hell, there are already almost as many mercenaries in Iraq as soldiers and Marines. Maybe it's time to follow General Lute's suggestion and re-institute the draft so that we are prepared to support the neocon idea of US foreign policy which I call "All War, All the Time".
Why don’t the Democrats just tell Bush that they surrender and, in a spirit of collegiality and bipartisanhip, sit down with him and Fred Kagan, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton and plan for our next decade in Iraq.
A better plan raised by many of us opponents of the war, ranging from Wes Clark to Dennis Kucinich calls for negotiations including Syria, Iran and other nations in the region to provide to security to Iraq as our troops redeploy. Stability in the region rather than our continued destabilizing occupation of Iraq is in everyone's best interest.