GOP Senator: Iraq War "May Be Criminal"

[jbfam4]

GOP Senator: Iraq War "May Be Criminal"
By Justin Rood - December 8, 2006, 1:14 PM

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002104.php



I can't tell you how devastated I was to learn that in fact we were not going to find weapons of mass destruction. But remembering the words of the soldier--don't tell me you support the troops but you don't support my mission--I felt the duty to continue my support . Yet I believe the President is guilty of trying to win a short war and not understanding fully the nature of the ancient hatreds of the Middle East. Iraq is a European creation. At the Treaty of Versailles, the victorious powers put together Kurdish, Sunni, and Shia tribes that had been killing each other for time immemorial. I would like to think there is an Iraqi identity. I would like to remember the purple fingers raised high. But we can not want democracy for Iraq more than they want it for themselves. And what I find now is that our tactics there have failed.

Again, I am not a soldier, but I do know something about military history. And what that tells me is when you are engaged in a war of insurgency, you can't clear and leave. With few exceptions, throughout Iraq that is what we have done. To fight an insurgency often takes a decade or more. It takes more troops than we have committed. It takes clearing, holding, and building so that the people there see the value of what we are doing. They become the source of intelligence, and they weed out the insurgents. But we have not cleared and held and built. We have cleared and left, and the insurgents have come back.

I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal . I cannot support that anymore . I believe we need to figure out how to fight the war on terror and to do it right. So either we clear and hold and build, or let's go home.
That is a lesson we are learning again. I am afraid, rather than leveling with the American people and saying this was going to be a decade-long conflict because of the angst and hatred that exists in that part of the world, that we tried to win it with too few troops in too fast a time. Lest anyone thinks I believe we have failed militarily, please understand I believe when President Bush stood in front of ``mission accomplished'' on an aircraft carrier that , in purely military terms, the mission was accomplished in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But winning a battle, winning a war, is different than winning a peace.

We were not prepared to win the peace by clearing, holding, and building. You don't do that fast and you don't do it with too few troops. I believe now that we must either determine to do that , or we must redeploy in a way that allows us to continue to prosecute the larger war on terror. It will not be pretty. We will pay a price in world opinion. But I, for one, am tired of paying the price of 10 or more of our troops dying a day. So let's cut and run, or cut and walk, or let us fight the war on terror more intelligently than we have, because we have fought this war in a very lamentable way.

Those are my feelings. I regret them. I would have never voted for this conflict had I reason to believe that the intelligence we had was not accurate. It was not accurate, but that is history. Now we must find a way to make the best of a terrible situation, at a minimum of loss of life for our brave fighting men and women. So I will be looking for every opportunity to clear, build, hold, and win or how to bring our troops home.

[jefferson_dem]

1. Y'sure...and Smith is up in 2008...and tops the potential Dem pick-up list.

Too little too late, Gordy.

Check this out ---

Could Gordon Smith be vulnerable in 2008? From the Oregonian:

"Oregon is bluer today than it has been in the last 20 years," said Jim Edmunson, chairman of the Oregon Democratic Party. "It's going to be difficult for Gordon Smith to win reelection unless there is a dramatic shift in the mood." ...
Edmunson predicts tremendous interest in the seat from Democrats, especially after Tuesday's election results. When asked to speculate about potential candidates, he first mentioned two former governors: John Kitzhaber - who chose not to run against Smith in 2002 -- and Barbara Roberts, though he said neither have indicated to him that they're interested in running. (Neither returned calls for comment on Thursday).

While members of the U.S. House often run for Senate, Edmunson noted that the Democrats just won control of the House, giving them more clout and powerful chairmanships. That may encourage them to stay in their current jobs.

"For any of our representatives, they're going to be in positions of real power for the first time, for most of them, in their careers," Edmunson said. "They have the seniority now and they have the majority."

http://www.blueoregon.com/2006/11/2008_gordon_smi.html

[opihimoimoi]

3. Too Little Too late...the rat has jumped the ship at this late hour

He is a loser...a traitor to Bush whose ass he has been kissing for all these 6 years...fuck the dude...he will lose in 08

[Maddy McCall]

2. In a war of insurgency, hearts and minds must be won.

We've already blown that, no matter how many Iraqi sycophants Bush displays at his state of the union speech.

[stillcool]

4. I watched that on C-Span..

and it gave me pause. Somethings' up. Don't know what this change in rhetoric is all about but I think its laying the ground work for a new party-line.

[Kolesar]

5. Kurdish, Sunni, and Shia tribes that had been killing each other for time immemorial (?)

I am not comfortable with that sort of messaging. It reads like dismissive, RW, supremist projection. My impression was that there was a common world of Islam spanning Northern Africa, southern Europe, and the Middle East that did function and trade together...for time immemorial.

(For that matter, the French and Germans have been killing each other for time immemorial. )