iraq-no more hold and pray

[niyad]

this was the editorial in my local reichwing hate rag this morning:

Our View - Monday
Comments 3 | Recommend 1
April 13, 2008 - 11:30PM
THE GAZETTE

IRAQ: NO MORE HOLD AND PRAY
U.S. needs more coherent plan

President Bush's speech Thursday, combined with the congressional appearances this week by Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, suggest strongly that the U.S. strategy in Iraq until the end of this year is "hold on and pray."



Even the welcome news that Army combat tours will be reduced from 15 months to 12 months, no doubt welcome news to the top military chiefs who have expressed concerns publicly and privately about the military being "hollowed out" by the endless combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, has a whiff of unseriousness about the mission to it. Granted, as outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, the Army is "out of balance" because of the war. But if the president had a coherent strategy for turning the corner in Iraq, he might well have been willing to tolerate that for a while.



The president spoke in broad generalities of "a free Iraq that can protect its people, support itself economically, and take charge of its own political affairs." Beyond holding on and hoping, however, there was no sense of how to get there from here.



One of the more striking aspects of our unfortunate occupation of Iraq is an ever-changing description of who "the enemy" is. At first it was the Saddam Hussein regime, and once that toppled it was covert regime loyalists. After a long period of denying that an insurgency had developed, insurgents became the enemy. Then it became al-Qaida in Iraq, although foreign and al-Qaida forces never made up more than about 10 percent of those fighting the U.S. occupation. Now it is "special teams," presumably supported by Iran.



It's clear now: The longer we remain in Iraq the more enemies we make. Imagine if the Chinese army were occupying California. Opposition to that occupation would come from new quarters every week.
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http://www.gazette.com/opinion/plan_35246___article.html/coherent_pray.html