Crossposted from Town Called Dobson
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It must be the drugs.
I watched Bush’s robotic and unemotional stance on adding more soldiers to Iraq with utter puzzlement. Haven’t we gone door-to-door before, like three times before? Aren’t these troops really just replacements for the International troops from the now defunct Coalition of the Willing who have already bugged out? If this is just for Baghdad, won’t this push the insurgents out to the rest of Iraq? Where are the troops to mop that up? Are we turning Baghdad into Gaza?
Evidently, I am not the only one asking these questions.
The Democratic congressional leadership rejected Mr Bush’s plan, arguing that it would endanger US national security, by stretching the armed forces further. They called for a phased withdrawal of the troops.
The Democratic whip in the Senate, Dick Durbin, said 20,000 extra troops were too few to end the violence and too many lives to risk.
The undeclared presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who has been cautious about her attitude to the war, said: “I cannot support his proposed escalation.”
The 2000 Republican contender John McCain, who has been the leading proponent of increasing troops numbers, nevertheless warned of more US deaths. “Is it going to be a strain on the military? Absolutely. Casualties are going to go up.”
Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he expected that “almost all of the fighting in Baghdad” will fall to U.S. troops.
“This is presented as an Iraqi plan with Iraqi forces in the lead and the U.S. in support,” Cordesman said. “The reality is it’s an American plan where the U.S. forces are in the lead, and it is unclear how much support U.S. forces are going to get.”
Lastly, Bush brought Syria and Iran into this. And it looks like that push has already started.
U.S.-led multinational forces detained six Iranians Thursday in a raid on Tehran’s diplomatic mission in the northern city of Irbil, Iraqi officials said, hours after U.S. President George W. Bush accused Iran and Syria of aiding militants in Iraq and promised to “interrupt” the flow of support as part of his new war strategy.
The U.S. military issued a statement saying it had taken six people into custody in the Irbil region but made no mention of a raid on the Iranian consulate. It declined further comment on the raid.
The forces stormed the building at about 3 a.m., detaining the Iranians and confiscating computers and documents, two senior local Kurdish officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information. Irbil is a city in the Kurdish-controlled north, 350 kilometers (220 miles) from Baghdad.
Worst. President. Ever.
