Once again, I find myself nauseous at my computer, reading the news. Specifically this article:
http://www.breitbart.com/...
And the quote below the fold:
The Pentagon wants to pull increasing numbers of American troops out of the line of fire in Iraq, but three years after the invasion this latest evolution in the U.S. military's mission will depend largely on whether Iraqi security forces can handle it.Whether there will be the first sustained decline in American casualties since the insurgency took hold in late summer 2003 depends on how quickly and fully U.S. troops' roles are changed. So far more than 2,300 American troops have died in the campaign, with more than 17,000 wounded.
Pentagon officials never expected that the invasion of Iraq, capped by a swift toppling of Saddam Hussein, would be followed by three years of deadly combat with a shadowy and resilient insurgency. Nor did they think it would take so long to get a capable Iraqi army trained and equipped.
"We did not plan three years ago to create more than token Iraqi forces," said Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Now we're at 230,000 roughly, and counting. Our whole strategy is dependent on the success of the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police."
Our military's whole strategy is dependent on the success of the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police? In other words, the withdrawal of our troops is dependent on this "army" and these "police" bringing about a peaceful democracy in a country on the brink of civil war. The return of America's fathers, mothers, sons and daughters will only happen once these forces gets control of things to the point where George Bush is satisfied. My stomach churns.
Has any one of you seen ANY evidence these crack Iraqi troops are experiencing any "success"? I think success is the one word that can NOT be used with this plan, nor will it ever. More appropriate words and phrases would be "disaster", "quagmire", "Big Lie" and "Another Vietnam".
Cordesman said in an interview that the U.S. military and the Bush administration vastly underestimated the difficulty they would face in stabilizing a conquered Iraq."We find ourselves having been able to prevent the insurgency from rising, but not from creating a growing risk of civil war," he said. "We have not by any means lost, but we can't say that we are, at least yet, winning."
So far more than 2,300 American troops have died in the campaign, with more than 17,000 wounded. "I'm sorry ma'am, your son died because we vastly underestimated the difficulty we would face. Ah, who are we kidding...we never planned further than bombing the crap out of Baghdad. These insurgent have turned out to stubborn little pricks. Who figured?" I'm disgusted.
Some of you know that I created the Peace Positive car magnet because I found the only way around an ulcer was to take some action for peace, even a small one.
I'm very proud of my wife Lori's design and that we have donated 25% of our gross to peace charities. But my limited budget and resources has translated into only about 500 sales--500 powerful statements riding around on cars across the country. I don't think that's enough.
So we are officially putting out the word that we are welcoming any politician, activist or organization involved in the peace movement to take our Dove and run with it. Feel free to put our design on t-shirts, banners, bumper stickers...even more car magnets. Make it your logo, your rallying cry, your inspiration. To contact us, email mike@peacepositive.net or go to our website by clicking on the dove.
If you can get this essential message out there in any way, go for it. Because the only successful plan I see that gets our troops home is one that we come up with ourselves.
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for their kind responses and generous magnet orders. One day's worth of your efforts has enabled us to make our single largest donation yet to The Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust and the other peace charities we contribute to. May the positive and peaceful messages we are putting out be seen by as many people as possible and may it help, even in the smallest way, to bring our troops home safely and quickly.