Vilsack suggests a strategy for Iraq (bad idea?)

[leQ]

i don't know about you, but as much as i like the governor of my state, whoever submitted this one to him for support should be fired.

Kansas City, Mo. — Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack on Friday offered a new strategy for Iraq, proposing U.S. forces set up heavily guarded zones around key areas and wait for insurgents to "come to us" instead of pursuing them.

Vilsack told reporters at a Democratic Leadership Council forum here that such zones would allow Iraqis to focus on establishing a new society that they eventually would be confident protecting themselves.

"They will have something to protect," said Vilsack, chairman of the organization who is weighing a campaign for president in 2008. "They will have something they care about, something they are willing to give their life to. I don't think that's the case today.

"If we used that fortress mentality and created a sense of security and security zones, and wait for the insurgents to come to us and don't go after them . . . and protect the people inside that zone, allow them to feel more comfortable and more confident and allow them to get an economy going . . . then at that point Iraqis are going to be more willing to assume the front lines of that fortress."

The Des Moines Register
so do i have a better idea? yeah; pack the fuck up and get the hell outta there. no amount of conjoling and conjuring is going to make the insurgents stop. we are the occupiers. they are fighting the occupiers. the solution is really very simple: STOP THE OCCUPYING.

[1932]

1. That's the DLC for you: neoliberalism in all its aggressive glory.

[Dr.Phool]

2. Sounds like the "Strategic Hamlet" program

We used in Vietnam. We know how well that worked out.

[IndianaGreen]

14. It is the strategic hamlet program

that people like General Gavin advocated, his enclave theory. It was a dismal failure!

What can we expect from a DLC governor?

[Larkspur]

3. Sounds like Vilsack is indirectly supporting permanent bases in Iraq

These dodo birds think that they can force Iraqis to be a satellite state for Israel and a launching pad for Israel's and US ambitions in the Middle East. They totally ignore the fact that the Shiites, who are 60% of the population are aligned with Iran, Israel's major enemy right now. Even if native Iraqis, like Sadr, don't want direct Iranian meddeling in their affiars, they certainly will not support being a launching pad for assualts by the US and Israel against a fellow Muslim nation. If Vilsack thinks the insurgency is bad now, wait until we piss off the Shiites. Then we'll have the Shiites and Sunnis targeted our troops.

[Teaser]

4. This is called a "retreat".

The French did it in Indo-China prior to our taking up the torch on that war. They would retreat to heaviliy armed garrisons. In the meantime, the guerrillas would take over the countryside as the French retreated. And then the French would emerge again to engage and reclaim the territory. Once control was improved, they would return to their garrisons...

[BillZBubb]

5. The DLC strikes again!

With "friends" like these, who needs Bush...

[IndianaGreen]

15. The DLC wanted Democrats to vote for IWR

and now wants a permanent military presence in Iraq.

The problem is those Presidential wannabees that adhere to DLC ideology, pukes like Biden and Hillary.

[ckramer]

6. Sounds like another Vietnam

We are basically burning money and waste soldiers' live there. This is another Vietnam coming without seeing a light.

[AlGore-08.com]

7. Seems Vilsack is falling into the "Dems need to be strong on defense" trap

And is embracing a horrible idea to prove we (and Vilsack 2008) are strong on defense. What it actually shows is that we (and Vilsack 2008) are idiots on defense.

And idiots on political strategy. As a Governor, Vilsack had the opportunity to run as "a Washington Outsider" and avoid the taint of having voted for the war (and a host of other dumb, harmful policies of the Bush Admin), as most of the Dems in Congress have done. Instead, Vilsack has to rush to prove that he may be a Washington Outsider, but he has the same unpopular, unworkable ideas as any Beltway Insider.

But whoever the Republicans run in 2008 is not going to be worried about "looking weak on defense" and will be free to do exactly what Nixon did - - promise to end the war (whether they actually end it or not.) Book it.

[enigma000]

8. Sounds like a retreat to the Green Zone

Then the untrained Iraqi army and the insurgents can battle it out. Sounds like a way to greatly increase Iraqi dead while saving some American losses. Is this better than having coalition troops battling the insurgency?

[IChing]

9. Well, that strategy might have to think about this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1869738

[daleo]

10. Big forts to sally forth and protect the oil

Chaos everywhere else. I have thought this was the ultimate plan for some time now.

[Laelth]

11. Bad idea.

Evidently, Vilsack isn't aware that two American civilians were wrested from their vehicles and killed recently in the middle of Baghdad (one shot, one burned). He wants to make some safe zones that the Iraqis, presumably, will want to keep and preserve for themselves? How can we do this when "insurgents" are right in the middle of Baghdad as we speak? There's only one thing the Iraqis want from us. They want us out, and we won't see peace until we get out.

-Laelth


Edit:Laelth--clarity.

[PATRICK]

12. I hope no one except Democrats

realize how stupid this armchair general strategy is. They already ARE opting for the old Crusader castle strategy using surrogates and disciplinary forays as much as possible to hasten the day of "castling" their forces in secure safety.

Naive. This has been the strategy all along but untenable because the country would dissolve around them and into civil war without an active American presence. We even pretend our own US "contractors" can fill the surrogate gap and not be counted as "casualties" officially.

What has Vilsack been doing, reading the funny papers the past several years? I am not a fan of his but this is plain embarrassing.

[NewJeffCT]

13. Aren't our troops already doing that?

I mean, other than big offensives, most of the troops there stay hunkered down in heavily fortified areas.