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| Mary Katharine Ham: I know a Marine, and he knows the stakes |
| 2006-12-11 |
| I know a Marine. He sits in a bar in North Carolina. He came there by way of Fallujah. The same close-cropped blonde fuzz glimmers on his head in the dim light as burned under the hot sun of Iraq. He’s the greatest storyteller I know, spinning tales about his overseas exploits, both combat and otherwise—only with the express permission of the mixed company present, of course. He speaks with a wit and color that would surprise John Kerry. He is not a quiet man. But I wonder what he would say this week. I wonder what he would say to the Iraq Study Group’s proposed “change in the primary mission of U.S. forces in Iraq that will enable the United States to begin to move its combat forces out of Iraq responsibly.” I imagine he’d just shake his head at me. He knows what the new “primary mission” is, as does anyone who’s even skimmed the report, and it’s not the type of mission Marines are accustomed to. The mission is to lose. Lose slowly, lose “responsibly,” lose diplomatically, but lose without a doubt. My lively Marine friend would likely be disgusted into silence. |
| Posted by:.com |
| #2 The ISG; composed of Generals, Mid-E experts, and cultural professors? Nope. Composed of folks who've never been on the ground there or in the fight at any level? Yep. Taking the ISG seriously is like asking me and my drinking buddies to form a study on the macro economic solution to the U.S.'s trade-deficit problems. If I want to know stuff about the Supreme Court I'll ask Sandra Day, if I want to know stuff about advising a pres maybe I'll ask James Baker; otherwise the ISG is mostly shite. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-12-11 17:31 |
| #1 Eighty percent of Baghdad is mixed neighborhoods. If the US took the conflict to that level, US troops would no longer be only an occasional target. What do we do? 1. Hand the keys to Iraq, to Iran's Ayatollahs? 2. Cut and run, leaving the Sects to fight for dominance? 3. Allow Iran and Turkey to slaughter Kurds? 4. Let China and Russia divvy up the ME oil patch? 5. Take sides with one Sect, and let them pacify the other, as was it done under the Saddam Hussein regime? 6. Impose a Secular Constitution on Iraq, and liquidate the aggressive clerics? We have no alternative but to pick #5, and eliminate Iran power as a precondition. |
| Posted by: Sneaze Shaiting3550 2006-12-11 00:33 |