Toward a New Iraq Policy - a New Beginning

The current Bush Administration Iraq War Policy is a failure. The justification for invading Iraq was based on false information. Saddam was not involved in the September 11 attack and had no operational links to al Qaeda. Saddam never had nuclear weapons. Saddam had gotten rid of his biological and chemical WMD back in the 90s because he was afraid of us. Saddam was no threat to the US. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld ignored military experts who advised them that the number of troops necessary to win the peace would be greater than the number they used and so chaos broke out leading to almost 2100 US deaths and possibly 120,000 Iraqi civilians dead. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld’s plan to use torture and humiliation to cow the people of Iraq have swelled the numbers of the insurgency and caused a mushrooming of the ranks of terrorists worldwide. Using White Phosphorous munitions on the Iraqis including civilians (and lying about it until we were caught) when we had condemned Saddam for using it on the Kurds has made us out to be hypocrites. It has left the US viewed by the rest of the world as a human rights violator and an ogre. The Bush Administration vacillates between telling us that there are very few trained Iraqis after two years of our training them and telling us that there are a large number of trained Iraqis despite reports that they are abandoning their posts and either joining the insurgency or melting into the landscape.

Enough!

The Bush Iraq War Policy is a failure! We need a new beginning. Scrap the old failed policy and begin with a fresh start. List what steps need to be done for us to truly declare mission accomplished in Iraq and guess what: the insurgency will move heaven and earth to achieve those steps to get us the hell out. Think about that. We get to decide what they need to do and they’ll do it to hasten our departure: a win-win situation. How about it, Mr. President and members of Congress? Draw up a new Iraq Policy that maps out what the Iraqis need to do to get us out, and they will do it. We will then truly have accomplished our mission.

The problem is that this has already been suggested by the Democrats and Bush's answer is "we will stay the course." Military experts tell us that the insurgency is getting stronger and that we will be fighting them for years to come and that after all those more years we still won’t vanquish them. When you are headed for a cliff, staying the course is a dumb idea!

President Bush and the Republicans in Congress refuse to admit the old policy is flawed and start fresh with a new beginning: a new Iraq Policy that could work because the insurgents have a vested interest in making it work. So we need to vote out the current crop of Republicans who are standing in the way of a new beginning and replace them with Americans who can look at this issue from a new vantage point. Then we can begin again and win in Iraq. And our fighting men and women can return home to their families who love them and their nation who value their lives and limbs.

Joe