2007: the last year in Iraq

I will crush the Mahdi Army

Joe Lieberman has an op-ed in The Washington Post which is so filled with lies and errors that it is impossible to correct.

What he calls extremists led by Iran are the people who met with Bush this month, they're known as the Badr Organization. There are no moderates in power, no democrats. Just Hakim, Sadr and Sunni guerrillas.

But in the end, this is our last year in Iraq.

What needs to be understood is that Iraq is in a civil war and the Sadrists are winning. Any US attempt to attack them not only could undermine any effort against Al Qaeda in Iraq, but place our supply lines in peril, starving and isolating our troops.

The Bush Administration has no plan for anything but doing the same. The idea of sending US troops into Sadr City should be called negligent homicide at it's best. People like Lieberman believe that if we just get to work, we can crush the bad guys. Well, the "bad guys" aren't just an army but a social movement and they have the loyalty of millions.

The inept recent attempt to isolate Sadr, kind of like trying to work past the IRA in 1919, failed before it started. Sistani said no dice. He may not like Sadr, but he likes the Americans even less, and Hakim showed his true colors sucking up to Bush. Which means he's for sale. He may have his Army formations, but I would bet when push comes to shove most of his guys would be loyal to Sayyid Sadr. Why? Because when the Sunni death squads came, it was the Mahdi Army who showed up to save their families.

Lieberman thinks we can win this war by relying on "moderates". You mean people who live in London? Because the people running things in Iraq are pretty firm on their views of the world. The fact is that this is our last year in Iraq, and Bush would do well to be in the Oval Office a year from now.

The US Army is close to collapse. Four tours borders on being assigned to punishment battalions. How many times can you send a man to die and expect him to come home alive? What happens to his family, his life? Not much except a divorce and years of counselling. Recruiters are now telling the most ridiculous lies to teenagers to get them to the Sandbox.

The 109th Congress may be the worst Congress in American history. And that would take some doing. They failed their reposnibilties as a legislative body to find out the truth of our war in Iraq. They chose party over duty at every turn.

The 110th Congress will do no such thing. Just asking basic questions about the conduct of the war will expose it's failure.

While Lieberman thinks our army is made up of automations, the reality is that it is crumbling before our eyes. How many men have gone UA? How many are in Canada now? We don't know and the Army doesn't want to find out. How many men have been chaptered out after a combat tour or two?

The destruction of the Army is slow, but visible. Death penalty murder trials, declining enlistment rates, divorce rates climbing. Reporters are just now asking these questions. What happens next. When is some happy talk colonel embarassed because his grunts have to gun down Iraqi soldiers drawing down on them or refuse one more pointless patrol.

We're coming fast towards 1970 and the Army which stopped fighting. Humans can only take so much. The people who have enlisted have gone above and beyond what is expected of them. But that cannot continue. Bush's war will come to an end. When is no longer the issue. The only question is how.