David Petraeus, the all knowing and all wise, the master-of-all-surveys and one true guiding light of the most holy surge, let a rather large cat out of the bag on Friday. In his testimony on August 10th let loose the possibility that we will be in Iraq for another nine to ten years. At least that was what Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said. Strangely enough Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) came away with a different view "I continue to be optimistic about the future, continue to feel great pride in what our military has been able to accomplish," Miller said. "We need to finish the job, allow the Iraqi government to stand up their own government and help them believe in themselves." Didn't see that one coming did you?
Five years into this war and it is still "we are making progress." We are still being urged to"stay the course" and "finish the job." Guys? Gals? It is an Occupation, the "job" will NEVER be done!
While there may be a little bit of happy news about how the surge is working, it is only and barely working in a Military sense. The political facts on the ground are an absolute disaster. Again no one is talking to no one in Iraq. The nation has divided into Kurdish, Sunni and Shia regions. Violence is down because ethnic cleansing is almost complete. The three major sides have all gone to their respective corners. We are now looking at phase two of the Hobbesian struggle of the all-against-the-all that Iraq has become. Now the Shia and the Sunnies will fight amongst themselves. Clan will now struggle against clan. This will be aided by the 110,000 Polish AK-47s that Petraeus managed to misplace. Iraq needs more arms sloshing around its' borders like Lindsey Lohan needs a Kilo of cocaine delivered to her front door.
And make no mistake about it, we are adding more fuel to this fire. We are arming the "Tribal Leaders" in Anbar. This after we armed the Shias before that and the Kurds before that. Iraq is fast becoming a NRA 2nd amendment paradise where even the toddlers are packing heat.
The nanosecond we depart, when we finally pack our troubles in our old kit bag and depart Iraq, the real horror show begins. Iraq is playing out like a horrible comment of that old Kinks song "should I stay, or should I go." The US can't stay, our troopers will become target practice for all the disparate Iraqi factions. Falling back to the bases? Sorry ,that is also a non-starter, it is way too easy for our troops to be trapped in a Dien Bien Phu scenario. Do we really need to repeat our helicopters-on-the-rooftops exit that we performed all those years ago in Saigon? We need an exit strategy and we needed it some four years ago.
But as the Kinks pointed out "if I stay there will be trouble, if I go there will be double." The question is no longer "will our exit from Iraq be ugly?" The question will be "how ugly will this be?" Folks, it is going to be like being forced to watch the secret sex tapes of Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold - with commentary by Bill O Reilly. Yes, that bad.
The thing is the Republicans are not even letting us stock up on Pepto-Bismol® for this inevitable end game. Everything is hunky-dory, the surge is working, just give Petraeus a little more time. Please note that the Magical, mystery month of September will actually not be September of 2007 but September of 2016 or 2017 AT BEST! Isn't that just wonderful? Strange though-doesn't King George W's reign end before then?
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