Do you want to know why we're stuck in Iraq?
I love to rant. I'm not going to lie. And now, it's time for another rant.
Back in 2003, I thought the invasion of Iraq -- with a war still being fought in Afghanistan -- was a mistake. While I did think that we would probably end up invading eventually, I thought that going through the process of trying to get weapons inspectors through, build up international support, etc., would not only help with the invasion of Iraq, but would give us time to get Afghanistan cleaned up.
However, that's not the reason why we're still stuck today. Afghanistan has completely fallen apart -- the anti-Taliban government no longer controls the country, and we don't seem to care. And who knows where Osama bin Laden has gone (is anyone still trying to capture him? Either this guy has the recurring wile, or he's actually a digital creation like Max Headroom.)
But, again, I need to talk about Iraq. Iraq needs to be cleaned up, too, and it's our mess (to be honest, things were at least orderly when Saddam was in charge. Not good, just orderly). On May 1, 2003, the President declared "mission accomplished." I said, "That's crazy talk. The mission's just starting."
After we had dismantled the Iraqi government, we had to put something in its place, and that's where we've failed miserably. We're great at warfare, but terrible at nation-building. We couldn't just leave Iraq behind -- we would have disarmed their military, kicked their police out of office, and dismantled their infrastructure, then left the people we came to liberate defenseless against a sea of hostile neighbors. We occupied Japan for 5 years after World War II, and it was fairly easy to defend, culturally homgenous, and industrialized. Iraq was none of these things, yet everyone who supported the invasion assumed we would be done in a short time.
Well, what set me off today was this article from the Associated Press on Yahoo! News. It's a brief history of the miserable failure of an effort to train Iraqi police and military. The gist is that there has never been a clear plan of what to do with rebuilding Iraq's ability to defend itself, and how well-equipped that force should be.
Why is there such a problem building an Iraqi defense force? Part of it has to do with a lack of ownership of the "nation-state" of Iraq. Like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, lines were drawn arbitrarily and a "nation-state" was imposed upon groups of people that weren't truly a nation. Most people in Iraq, think of themselves as Shiites, Sunnis, or Kurds first, and Iraqis second. (It was probably a bad idea to try to force Iraq to remain as a single state, but it was seen as a lesser evil than creating 3 mutually hostile states, especially when natural resources -- oil -- would not be evenly divided.) We had a chance to try and do some nation-building when the offensives ended, and we didn't. Now, we're stuck until a stable Iraqi military & government develops and can actually be viable, or Iraq implodes, whichever comes first.
Don't let the political rhetoric fool you this campaign season with regards to Iraq. Both sides are completely clueless. The Republicans operate under the delusion that the current strategies are working -- look at what McCain says in his speeches. The problem is that their strategies, like the army's strategies in Vietnam, are directed at destroying insurgents, not at nation-building. Do you think we would have fared as poorly in Vietnam had the government we were propping up not constantly been on the verge of complete implosion?
The Democrats don't offer any solutions, either. Obama and Hillary neither one say they're going to cut and run (though they do say that getting out of Iraq is a priority), and they don't really offer a coherent strategy. Part of that is understandable, as they don't have full access to the situation, not being presidents. But if someone, ANYONE, would say something other than "stay the course" or "get out of Iraq," I'd be a much happier panda. (If someone actually said something about adopting a strategy of nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan, I'd probably run up and kiss them.)
Back in 2003, I thought the invasion of Iraq -- with a war still being fought in Afghanistan -- was a mistake. While I did think that we would probably end up invading eventually, I thought that going through the process of trying to get weapons inspectors through, build up international support, etc., would not only help with the invasion of Iraq, but would give us time to get Afghanistan cleaned up.
However, that's not the reason why we're still stuck today. Afghanistan has completely fallen apart -- the anti-Taliban government no longer controls the country, and we don't seem to care. And who knows where Osama bin Laden has gone (is anyone still trying to capture him? Either this guy has the recurring wile, or he's actually a digital creation like Max Headroom.)
But, again, I need to talk about Iraq. Iraq needs to be cleaned up, too, and it's our mess (to be honest, things were at least orderly when Saddam was in charge. Not good, just orderly). On May 1, 2003, the President declared "mission accomplished." I said, "That's crazy talk. The mission's just starting."
After we had dismantled the Iraqi government, we had to put something in its place, and that's where we've failed miserably. We're great at warfare, but terrible at nation-building. We couldn't just leave Iraq behind -- we would have disarmed their military, kicked their police out of office, and dismantled their infrastructure, then left the people we came to liberate defenseless against a sea of hostile neighbors. We occupied Japan for 5 years after World War II, and it was fairly easy to defend, culturally homgenous, and industrialized. Iraq was none of these things, yet everyone who supported the invasion assumed we would be done in a short time.
Well, what set me off today was this article from the Associated Press on Yahoo! News. It's a brief history of the miserable failure of an effort to train Iraqi police and military. The gist is that there has never been a clear plan of what to do with rebuilding Iraq's ability to defend itself, and how well-equipped that force should be.
Why is there such a problem building an Iraqi defense force? Part of it has to do with a lack of ownership of the "nation-state" of Iraq. Like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, lines were drawn arbitrarily and a "nation-state" was imposed upon groups of people that weren't truly a nation. Most people in Iraq, think of themselves as Shiites, Sunnis, or Kurds first, and Iraqis second. (It was probably a bad idea to try to force Iraq to remain as a single state, but it was seen as a lesser evil than creating 3 mutually hostile states, especially when natural resources -- oil -- would not be evenly divided.) We had a chance to try and do some nation-building when the offensives ended, and we didn't. Now, we're stuck until a stable Iraqi military & government develops and can actually be viable, or Iraq implodes, whichever comes first.
Don't let the political rhetoric fool you this campaign season with regards to Iraq. Both sides are completely clueless. The Republicans operate under the delusion that the current strategies are working -- look at what McCain says in his speeches. The problem is that their strategies, like the army's strategies in Vietnam, are directed at destroying insurgents, not at nation-building. Do you think we would have fared as poorly in Vietnam had the government we were propping up not constantly been on the verge of complete implosion?
The Democrats don't offer any solutions, either. Obama and Hillary neither one say they're going to cut and run (though they do say that getting out of Iraq is a priority), and they don't really offer a coherent strategy. Part of that is understandable, as they don't have full access to the situation, not being presidents. But if someone, ANYONE, would say something other than "stay the course" or "get out of Iraq," I'd be a much happier panda. (If someone actually said something about adopting a strategy of nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan, I'd probably run up and kiss them.)