LETTER to LA TIMES: Re. Max Boot: Bring Iraqi Forces Up to Speed

[yurbud]

Max Boot's Oct. 18 column 'http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-boot18oct18,1,7294356.column?ctrack=1&cset=true">Bring Iraqi Forces Up to Speed,' implies Iraqis are apes who just descended from the trees, and can't figure out how to put a military and police force together. Somehow, the insurgents aren't having a problem attacking our troops, and a decade before we invaded, Iraq fought a Iran, a much larger country to a draw. The problem is not training, but motivation.

The current problem is getting troops and cops to fire on their own people who they know may have a legitimate beef with us being there. Which sounds a hell of a lot like Vietnam. Wasn't that the big plan there? Train the Vietnamese to fight for us in our absence? Altough it was never put that bluntly, that's the real problem.

When the perception and reality are we are there to screw them out of their oil wealth and kill those who protest too much with either airstrikes or death squads, it's going to be tough to find people to consistently fight for us. Those who do are unlikely to be choir boys, and will likely inspire even less love for the puppet government.


Yurbud

[enigma000]

1. There is support for the government and police

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/sep06/Iraq_Sep06_rpt.pdf

6. Confidence in Government and Security Forces

Despite Iraq’s troubles, a large majority expresses confidence in the government led by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki. Sixty-three percent say that “in its effort to deal with Iraq’s problems,” the government is doing a very good job (17%) or a somewhat good job (46%).

Large majorities also express confidence in Iraqi government forces’ ability to protect their security. As mentioned above, 64 percent say they have some (40%) or a lot (24%) of confidence in the Iraqi army. Though controversy has swirled around Interior Ministry forces, they fare only a little less well, with 62 percent expressing some (34%) or a lot (28%) of confidence. For the police, 71 percent express some (34%) or a lot (37%) of confidence.

The Iraqis may not fight for the US but they seem willing to support those fighting for their government.

[yurbud]

2. they are in a bind though--US is judging them by how well they fight

for us not for Iraqis.

Guys like Boot are bitching because the Iraqis aren't pulling the trigger on their cousins fast enough.

[robertpaulsen]

3. Max Boot is a CFR POS.

Congratulations on getting your letter in LA Times. I wrote one that didn't get published in response to a Max Boot column where he stated that Vietnamization actually worked. My response was that this claim is patently false, there is an infallible way to determine that Vietnamization didn't work: SOUTH VIETNAM NO LONGER EXISTS! If the citizens of South Vietnam had actually supported "their" government, there would never have been the need for US troops in the first place.

[yurbud]

4. this didn't get in yet--I posted here about the same time I hit send.