As I stated yesterday in my last post, I got an e-mail late Wednesday night from Ben Cardin with its subject being his reaction to the Iraq Study Group report. Here’s what he wrote:
Dear Friend,
Today, the Iraq Study Group presented its recommendations to the Bush administration and the American people. I hope President Bush and his top advisers will read them very closely.
After conducting the most in-depth study on the Bush administration’s management of the war in Iraq to date, the bi-partisan commission reached the same basic conclusion that most Americans have already reached for themselves: we need a change of course in Iraq and we need it now.
As the commission notes, the situation in Iraq is in fact “grave and deteriorating.” The Iraqi government needs to take more responsibility, the Bush administration must reach out to the international community, including some of Iraq’s neighbors, and our troops need to start coming home soon.
I believe the decisions we make in the coming weeks and months about our future involvement in Iraq will be among the most important foreign policy decisions of our times. Our approach in Iraq will not only impact the future of that nation, but also the stability of the entire region and America’s standing in the in the world. With so much is at stake, I am honored that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has nominated me to serve on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where I will work with my colleagues to develop a new policy in Iraq when the new Congress convenes.
The Bush administration’s policies in Iraq simply are not working – and everyone seems to recognize that but President Bush himself.
The American people know the status quo isn’t working and they voiced their opposition at the polls last month. Most members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, know it’s not working. Numerous former generals and military experts have spoken out against it too. We now know that even Donald Rumsfeld, just two days before resigning, conceded to the President that the current course in Iraq wasn’t working. Yet, to this day, the President insists on continuing with the same failed policies.
Hopefully now, with the commission’s recommendations in hand, the Bush administration will hear the concerns of the American people and chart a new course. It’s time to finally put forward a strategy to start bringing home our troops safely and honorably.
I believe the Bush administration should implement the commission’s recommendation to start significantly drawing down our troops – particularly the non-combat personnel. As the commission noted, beginning the process of bringing American troops home will send a strong signal to the Iraqi government that they need to stand up and assume responsibility for their own security.
I voted against the going to war in Iraq four years ago and have remained an outspoken critic of the President’s management of it. Last June, I outlined my own plan for moving forward in Iraq, which like the Iraq Study Group report, included gradually drawing down American troops and aggressively engaging the international community in the rebuilding of Iraq.
The Iraq Study Group’s report has provided the Bush administration with many thoughtful recommendations on how to chart a new course in Iraq. Now it’s time for the Administration to take action – change is long overdue.
Sincerely,
Ben Cardin
After receiving this e-mail I thought this would be a great chance to post about my feelings on the ISG and the Long War in general.
Dear Senator-elect Cardin:
As one of many on your e-mail list because of my interest in political affairs, I am in receipt of your e-mail note of Wednesday, December 6th. To me, it’s quite ironic that the report came out when it did, as the next day we commemorated the 65th anniversary of the previous (to 9/11/01) surprise attack on American soil, Pearl Harbor.
I find it enlightening that you support having a study group to tell us how to conduct warfare. Back in 1941, the only group that mattered was America as a whole, and as a nation we rolled up our sleeves and got to work defending ourselves regardless of cost in material and lives.
But I thought a good, simple to understand analogy would be to compare our war efforts in Iraq to the current success enjoyed by the Baltimore Ravens. In actuality, the scenario I describe becomes quite possible as the remainder of the football season plays out.
Having defeated an opponent in their first round playoff game, the Ravens would find themselves having to make the long trip to San Diego for the next round of the playoffs. During the prior week, the Ravens study film of previous Charger games to determine what tendencies San Diego has and how best to combat them. And once the game starts, they use their strength and power on both offense and defense to jump off to a quick 14-0 lead.
But as any good team would over the course of the game, the Chargers adjust and start to find some of the weaknesses in the Ravens’ attack. Plus, having the advantages of home field and a week off to prepare, San Diego tosses out a few wrinkles that the Ravens weren’t expecting coming in. The combination of these factors knocks the Ravens back on their heels – Baltimore becomes inept at even the simplest tasks of blocking and holding on to the football. Penalties, turnovers, and mistakes compound and by halftime the momentum has shifted and the Chargers have come back to take a 17-14 lead. And the contingent of Ravens fans who were loudly and boisterously cheering on the purple and black early on becomes openly derisive of their chances in the second half while the ever-skeptical “experts” sneer that “we told you that the Ravens weren’t good enough to win.”
Hopefully it was quite easy to determine which parties in the Long War were analogous to the ones in my semi-mythical playoff game. Our country took the fight to the Islamofascist forces much as the Ravens would have to take their playoff fight to San Diego in order to advance.
So halftime has arrived. It seems to me that the course that you seem to advocate (and have all through the campaign) would be for the Ravens to play their second-stringers during the second half and walk off the field after the third quarter. But true Ravens fans would expect their team to make whatever adjustments were necessary and shift tactics back to other areas they were strongest at to come back for the win. To that end, I find it interesting that nowhere in the main body of the ISG report is the word “victory” mentioned aside from the citation that pulling out would hand the terrorist forces a victory.
As I see it, there’s only one good outcome in the Long War. We win. America cannot win this by retreating nor can diplomacy save the day. Five Presidents (since Jimmy Carter in 1979) have had to deal with these terrorists to one degree or another, with the first of many incidents involving Islamic terrorists being the kidnapping of 52 hostages at the American Embassy in Teheran. One of the hostage-takers is a man who the ISG advocates negotiating with!
President Bush said early on that this fight would not be easy nor would it be short. I read a news article the other day that noted we’ve now fought the battles in Iraq on the ground for a longer period than our involvement in World War 2. As the media almost gleefully reports a daily body count and works to move the nation into an anti-war frenzy as occurred with Viet Nam, it makes me wonder if the length of this fight has as much to do with the lack of support from people like you, Senator-elect Cardin, as it does the anti-Semitic, religiously extreme resolve that drives our enemies on the battlefield. We learned today that this resolve may have led a young man to sacrifice himself and kill hundreds of others in an Illinois mall during the holidays if not for good work by FBI agents.
The other good work has been done by many thousands of young men and women who do support our country and what it stands for. Some of them have made the ultimate sacrifice as Derrick Shareef may have planned to as part of jihad. But with any outcome other than our eventual victory, those fine Americans (and other coalition forces) who’ve died in Iraq and Afghanistan die in vain.
Sincerely,
Michael Swartz
www.monoblogue.us
You assume that the war in Iraq is a just war. The Islamofascist were not there before we were, now they are a self sustaining entity. Your myopic vision of the war and only the war in Iraq is why we are going to lose that encounter. Iraq is not the GWOT, it is a small part of it that gets alot of press. Kind like when CJ ran on the write in ticket. His support had a loud voice, but there was not widespread support for him. There is not widespread support for this war becasue everyone knows it was started by choice and built on top of lies and deception. Trust is a bitty when you dont have it anymore. Only 30% of the populaiton supports Bush now. 30%. You can bash whoever you want, but you need to look at yourself for some answers too. Staying in Iraq will accomplish what? Beating terrorists? Yeah Iraqi terrorist killing Iraqis. What about the one planning the next attack here? Those cats are not in Iraq. They are in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, maybe, but how do we know? All our resources are put into a war that makes little sense. Come on Ted, just admit it.