Last night President George W. Bush said things in Iraq are not going as well as we would hope and he wants to send more troops over. I must say I disagree with his plan. While I fully supported and still support our going into Iraq, I feel sending more troops is flawed policy and that our desired goal needs an adjustment.

About sending more troops

Bush wants to send just over 20,000 more troops to Iraq. Given about 130,000 troops are already there, this means Bush feels increasing troop strength by about 15% will cure the current issues. It will not. If the additional troops are sent I hope to be wrong, but I think I’m right. Initially sending more troops when first entering Iraq would have helped, but increasing by about 15% now will not. Because now the enemy is entrenched and ready to adjust. The enemy knows what we are planning to do. We’ve just broadcast the plan to the entire world. So the enemy is simply going to adjust for the new plan that we’ve already broadcast. What is happening in Iraq now is nothing new, although up till this point I felt America was handling things better. In the past, the British have seen numerous failed efforts in Iraq and I think America’s has been far more successful overall, but now just like Brits of old we are trying the throw more troops at the problem policy. And we’re not throwing many. I’ve mentioned before that I’d prefer to see a tactic that involves using more bombs than US troops. Level areas with resistance and let the Iraqi military clean up the mess.

Goal adjustment

Since the start our overall goal has been to bring democracy to Iraq. Basically to bring a Western style of government to Iraq and hope that changes things. There is just one problem. Islam is incompatible with Western styles of government. And just like in Afghanistan we are creating an Islamic republic. So we have troops on the line creating yet another government that persecutes Christians. It’s already going on in Afghanistan. And in Iraq Christians are already seeing much more persecution than before. The majority there does not care about Christians and with their political power Christians will see more problems, especially converts from Islam. If Christians are persecuted there and Iraq’s government does not work to protect them, can we really trust Iraq’s new government, that was elected by Iraqis to act in the best interests of a nation called America, that is full of Christians? As I’ve been saying, I now have reservations about some of our “allies” in this war on terror.

So I feel sending more troops in will fail and that we are building up yet another government that will persecute Christians. I also feel they might not work in our best interests as much as we hope for them to. This is why I feel that our desired goal in Iraq should be adjusted. I want our troops to be successful in Iraq and I feel the goal should be to simply remove the larger terrorist cells and leave. I think most Americans want the larger terrorist cells removed, because then there would be less violence in Iraq, but Bush wants a democracy that works in America’s best interests. I think we can achieve what most Americans want, but not what Bush wants. Once upon a time I thought Bush’s idea might work, but knowing more now about the culture and faith of people there I feel otherwise.

The simplistic nay sayers that called them “tribal” were right!

I recall before we entered Iraq when some people said Bush’s plan for Iraq would never work because the people there were too “tribal” in nature. They said at best you could just bomb some areas to take out the known major enemies and leave it at that. Then come back and repeat the process when other enemies rise in the future. I used to feel those people were being too “simplistic” in calling Iraq a “tribal” nation. That they could actually be brought into a Western style of government and be better friends with the West. I feel now that I was wrong. I now feel that Islam prevents them from having a government that would reflect Western values and that there really are too many people there with a “tribal” mentality. Islam plays into it all, because the conflicts involve their view of their cult faith.

We are winning though.

I still feel that we are winning in Iraq. We did remove Saddam and most of Iraq does not have the violence seen in some areas. I just think Bush’s plan for a troop build-up is flawed and that we need to adjust our expectations. I don’t feel Iraq is another Vietnam. We did not capture the leaders in Vietnam, we didn’t hold elections in Vietnam, we didn’t start building schools and have most of the nation under control in Vietnam. So it’s not a Vietnam and it’s not even another Korea, but things are not going as well as we would like. I say the USA has done better with Iraq than other nation’s previous efforts over a few years, the USA had to continue fighting terrorism and Saddam had already declared himself an enemy of the United States.

Savage’s opinion

Having said all that I have on the matter, Michael Savage offered his opinion. He and I agree that Bush’s idea won’t work and a change in strategy is required. He feels that so long as the troops have to be nice in their efforts and follow rules not followed by the enemy that we will have problems. On that we also agree. But that’s probably the extent of our agreement. Because he sees another Vietnam or Korea and I do not. He feels Bush’s error is criminal in nature, I do not. He does offer a view worth hearing and while he says some things that some might find to be unsettling, I can’t call the man a liar. He and I don’t fully agree or see everything the same, but we both realize the wrong direction at this point is the direction proposed by President George W. Bush.

Hear Savage’s take using the link below.
Michael Savage on Bush blunders in Iraq - ASF Audio (Size: 1.58 MB)
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