Our Tangled Webs

On January 17 I wrote a blog about having to eat crow because my opposition to the surge may have turned out to be wrong. I thought the surge would accomplish nothing, but it turned out to have quelled some of the violence between insurgent factions by channeling their energies toward fighting Al Qaida instead of each other.

On further reflection, though, I think my crow lunch may have been a bit premature. At this point, the violence remains reduced, but a picture is emerging of a nation that remains terribly divided and a relative peace that was purchased rather than gained. It is quite possible that we purchased a temporary truce and noone’s loyalty to the cause of a stable Iraq. (See: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2937104.ece)

I still prefer the tactics General Patraeus employed in the surge to those Paul Bremmer initially used, but the overall impact of the surge will take some time to emerge.

One hugely unexplored and underreported aspect is the effect all of this is having on our own troops. They are stretched dangerously thin. They have been giving their all and then some for too long now and there is no sign that the surge is going to generate any change that will offer them relief. In fact, the opposite is more likely the case since the Pentagon is now talking about having to retain the surge troops in position beyond the time initially scheduled. That means there is no relief in sight for those troops that were already in-country before the surge.

The horror stories being faced by our military personnel continue to surface, too. A good friend reports a family member transferred from the Air Force to the Marines and told to accept an assignment in Iraq that is twice the length required by the agreement between the two branches or face immediate transfer upon his return to the states. As that would translate into a forced move for his entire family involving the sale of their home in a down market and a high school senior who would be faced with the loss of the college scholarships she has been working toward, this amounts to blackmail. Add that kind of thing to reports that the PTSD level for any troops that have served in Iraq is running at about 1/3, plus tales of families whose children have been taken from them because a parent has been out of the country in Iraq too long, and you have a picture of a military whose moral must be nearly ripped to shreds by a government forced into an inescapable corner by this country’s horrendously bad decision to go to Iraq in the first place.

“Oh, what tangled webs we weave . . .”


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle