Letters to the Editor
rtf100
Published Letters: 181 Editor's Choice: 8
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Iraq and political weaknesses
[Read the article: Why Democrats can stop the war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nothing about Iraq makes sense. We are fighting a war that is making our enemies stronger, more brazen and more numerous each day. Iraq is a war of attrition that the US cannot win unless we are prepared to abandon our values and adopt a strategy of "total war" which borders on genocide. Since that is not politically or legally possible under our rules of engagement, the worst thing we could have done in Iraq is to engage the enemy on their turf and according to their rules and become a testing ground for more lethal and effective guerrilla tactics. Iraq has provided insurgent groups around the world a front row seat on how to defeat a major military power by using cell phones, AK-47's and RPG launchers. Israel got a taste of this in Lebanon, which Iran has duly noted. Afghanistan could be the next theater that "goes south" in a hurry for all the same reasons.
The issue is that political weaknesses in every corner of the world caused this debacle to unfold the way it did. This is the untold story of the GWOT in that key world leaders fell into the trap set very deliberately by al Qaeda after 9/11. Al Qaeda knew that Bush would react just the way he did and even got a bonus when the US went into Iraq. By political weakness, I mean that Bush could not withstand the pressure to execute militarily and instead use the enormous political and diplomatic resources of the US to hunt down al Qaeda and destroy them. All of this could have been done in the shadows but Bush's political weaknesses prevailed and the rest is history. Bush was not prepared to risk 2004 based on vague notions of containment or counterinsurgency actions in faraway places even though that policy has served American presidents well since Truman. Bush wanted action and this is what we got:
o a depleted military stretched too thinly around the world
o a vastly divided country that causes more even more political weaknesses
o a younger generation that believes the US is more threatening than North Korea
o an emboldened enemy that believes that the decadent West is no match for virulent islamo-fascism.
o a false sense of security by believing that the worst is behind us
o a disdain for non-military tactics that promote ideas and values instead
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Let's Connect Some Dots
[Read the article: Ghosts of dirty tricks past]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am connecting the dots and Hillary reminds me of Nixon, particularly her paranoia and cunning personality. Hillary is like "zero to bitch in 1.6 seconds" just the way Nixon was known as "Dick Nixon before he dicks you". But Nixon actually did some good as president and is not in the presidential trash heap like Carter is, soon to be joined by RayGun and Bush Jr. While we are on the subject of presidential trash heaps, Bush, the elder, will viewed more favorably than RayGun as time goes on.
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It's Iran, Stupid
[Read the article: Still grave and deteriorating]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]With all the hand-wringing about Iraq itself, nobody is focusing on the "main event" which is Iran. Clearly the US needs to redeploy in a manner that contains Iranian aggression that, if not checked, will cause the Iraqi government to be neutralized and the ascendancy of Shiite fundamentalists allied with Iran as the real force in Iraq. In fact, some claim that this has already happened. If this occurs, which Iran genuinely believes will occur shortly, anyway, the US will "be contained" instead of the other way around. The US will then have limited usefulness in Iraq: go after the Sunnis and al Qaeda at the behest of the central government or leave.
What is becoming clearer and clearer with each passing day is that Bush has been played "as a violin" by Iran since the beginning of this tragic affair. The US has been doing all the "heavy lifting" that Iran has been unable to do such as getting rid of the Taliban, Saddam Sunnis and even putting some hurt on al Qaeda. This has allowed Iran to focus on other strategic matters such as the destruction of Israel and monopolization of oil reserves. Bush is also being played as an "idiot" by Russia, which is shipping sophisticated weaponry to Iran for to use against US soldiers. Why do you think Black Hawk helicopters are being shot down every other day? The Russians remember very well how their helocopters got shot down in Afghanistan in the 80's. With shoulder fired stingers missiles provided by the CIA. Duh!
The immediate solution is a containment policy against Iran that will be the basis of US foreign policy in the region. Nothing else matters as much as keeping Iran in a box. We probably cannot salvage much in Iraq but keeping Iran out of Iraqi affairs might, might level the playing field a bit towards a political settlement and not sectarian civil war.