Blow to Bush as Top US Commander Warns of Worse to Come in Iraq
WASHINGTON - The top US commander in Iraq admitted yesterday that the conflict would “get harder before it gets easier”, providing further ammunition for Democrats determined to face down George Bush in their constitutional clash over the Iraq war.Hours before the Senate passed legislation ordering troops to start leaving Iraq by October, General David Petraeus said the conflict was “the most complex and challenging I have ever seen”. Gen Petraeus, who was put in charge of the Baghdad troop “surge” to pacify the Iraqi capital, warned of the enormous commitment and sacrifice facing the US in Iraq.
His downbeat assessment, in contrast with Mr Bush’s optimistic statements, stiffened the resolve of Democrats in Congress pushing for an early withdrawal of US troops. Yesterday the Senate followed the House of Representatives in backing legislation that calls for most US troops to be out by spring 2008.
The bill is expected to land on Mr Bush’s table on Tuesday, the fourth anniversary of the speech in which he prematurely declared an end to hostilities. Under the legislation billions of dollars of military funding will be withheld unless Mr Bush sets in motion the withdrawal timetable.
The White House, which has described the bill as a timetable for surrender, reiterated yesterday that Mr Bush would veto it. As the Democrats do not have the two-thirds majority needed to overturn the veto, a stand-off is inevitable.
Democratic members of Congress claim the “surge” is doomed to failure, a scepticism shared by some Republicans.
Gen Petraeus returned to Washington this week to brief the president and members of Congress. Although he agreed with Mr Bush that there had been some improvements in the two months since the arrival of US reinforcements, he also stressed that the achievements “have not come without sacrifice”. He noted the increasing use of car bombs and suicide attacks has “led to greater US losses” and Iraqi military casualties. Suicide bombers claimed the lives of nine US paratroopers this week, while last week witnessed the deadliest single suicide bombing in Baghdad, when 140 died in a market attack.
Asked how long the US would have to remain in Iraq, he said he could not anticipate what the level “might be some years down the road”.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker, said: “The sacrifices borne by our troops and their families demand more than the blank cheques the president is asking for, for a war without end.”
In reality, the Democrats will not choke off funds to US troops in the field. But they will try to force Mr Bush to compromise. One route being discussed by Democrats would be to set benchmarks for the Iraqi government to tackle sectarian violence; failure to act fast enough would trigger withdrawal. One step the Democrats are insisting upon would be for the Shia-led Iraqi government to agree a fair formula for sharing oil revenues with other groups.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
“One step the Democrats are insisting upon would be for the Shia-led Iraqi government to agree a fair formula for sharing oil revenues with other groups.”
If we are going that far, why not partition Iraq into Shia, Kurd and Sunnis countries? Have they demonstrated in any manner, shape or form that they have the capacity to live peace-ably with each other especially after revenge cycles have started? Absolutely NO. Then how realistic is it for us to say we can’t stand down until they stand up when “standing up” means doing something they have never done before?
The current Iraq borders were set by the British at the end of WWI (1918) and arbitrarily put tribes together that had been warring with each other for centuries. Why are we stuck with the old British boundaries and colonial attitude?
Like the India - Pakistan partition decades ago, there would need to be migration of different sects to different countries. At worse, the Sunnis would continue insurgency from their own country. However, we would then have a front line and option for conventional warfare. They have been seriously outmatched in that type of warfare twice now.
We are locked into the one Iraqi government mindset due to the neo cons. They wanted to cut a sweet deal for control of the oil fields and establishing permanent US military bases to secure our access to oil over the next couple of decades of intensifying competition. Dealing with one puppet government is much easier than three different countries that are nationalistic because of common sectarian roots.
In the meantime, intensive pressure needs to be brought to bear on both parties to quit using the lives and well being of our troops a partisan volleyball game. In no uncertain terms Bush needs to be challenged that what he really wants is to drag his feet until the last day of his holding office with our troops maximized in Iraq and our military over-extended and in process of being broken in the same way the military was broken from Vietnam.
This entire discussion of Plan A or Plan B makes me sick. If oil is not the reason we are there, then why discuss the division of the Iraq resouce?
I see the hummer owners and other gas guzzlers and see blood going into their tanks. All of our auto tanks. This must stop. We are all responsible.
Saying that General Petraeus comments are a blow for the President’s surge campaign is not a valid link to what the General himself may believe. He is being candid about the exasperating conditions in Iraq, because he does not want to paint too rosy a picture.
My experience with war and preparing for it is that we do the best with what we are given and we plan for all sorts of contingencies. The Iraqi war is particularly dangerous for us, because it is a police action in which we are trying to keep the Peace not break it.
This is not easy. We learn as we go, and we get better as we go. People still suffer, and unless one is in the fray, one cannot judge whether a particular activity is correct or not.
Nowadays it is tough to support war in any form. However, we are stuck with this war in Iraq and the civilian leaders who got us into it!
In the short term we must support our soldiers with our hearts and minds. They deserve this because they come from US… all of us.
Yes - our military is an extension of We the People. As Americans we have the right to complain about how we are being made to pay the cost and the price of this war.
Right now our soldiers need to know that we are behind them, because it is certain that our government officials will not stand beside them.
Let’s also hold our leaders accountable for bringing our soldiers home. Near term we should drop the posturing over dates for withdrawal and such. This only makes us (soldiers)mad.
True, we would rather not die for a mistaken ideology, but we also do not think it is a very good idea to abandon hope for a better world… Make of it what you will.
What better way to support the troops than to bring them home. What Bush has done is gambled and lost. Now we will all pay for his administrations lack of foresight. Stay and make it worse or cut our losses and come home. Sooner or later we will have to make that decision and more lives will be lost the longer we wait. Do you really think that the Arabic countries want us telling them what to do? Get real . . .
A previous poster described the Iraq war as a “police action”, where we are trying to “keep the peace.” Nothing could be farther from the truth. We Americans invaded Iraq, ostensibly because the nation of Iraq was a threat and a danger to the US. As we have since learned, the actual reasons were a lot less altruistic. There were strong elements of empire-building, a long-standing wish by neo-cons to take charge of the middle east and enforce their style of corporate capitalism, a greedy thirst for control of Iraq’s oil fields, and a burning desire on the part of Bush II to be a successful “war president”, as he has often proclaimed himself.
Keeping the peace? Police action? We actually disrupted a relatively peaceful, although brutal, dictatorship, one originally of our making, replacing it with a failed military occupation and a set of puppets who represent no-one but Bush and his so-called coalition. And neither the US nor any other country has any call to invade another country to perform a “police action.”
Let’s also hold our leaders accountable for bringing our soldiers home. Near term we should drop the posturing over dates for withdrawal and such. This only makes us (soldiers)mad.
To jcmldBean : Mad enough to do anything about ? I doubt it . So far the only persons who were “mad” enough and with the guts to do anything about were Watada ,
Ergo and about sixteen hundred signees of the App;eal for Redress . Roughly 140,00 occupants have the awesome power of ending the occupation NOW without waiting for leaders to be held accountable . When are soldiers going to finally comprehend the fact that a tiny fraction of American citizens and one percent of Congressmen have a close relative as an occupier. Most Americans have no vested interest in the choice of stay or run . Just look at the size but mostly the politeness of all the protests . Gandhi , the spiritual leader behind the actions of MLK Jr. and Nelson Mendela had some very simple advice, ” first they ignore you ; then they laugh at you ; then they fight you ; then you win ( you’ll be in jail though .)
When deployables and deployed desert en masse then the occupation will end and not before . Unconscionable for a patriotic American ? I suppose . But then the alternative is living or dying for a lie ; “unjust cause” is too euphemistic.
As an American who has some empathy for other cultures, who has lived abroad, and who has traveled to the Arab Middle East alone and without a tour guide, I believe strongly that discussions such as:
Shouldn’t we just divide up Iraq into 3 parts (like Caesar’s Gaul)?
are based on an apparently common misunderstanding. Many Americans seem to think that Americans have to, or can, fix the mess they created.
Look, we did ourselves in by causing this mess. We don’t have any say in how to solve the problems we caused. We have no noble motives in the Middle East. We never were there to fix the Arabs’ problems and we aren’t there for that reason now. The Arabs know this. To claim that we have to stay in the Middle East to solve the problem we created is to believe falsely that we were trying to make the world better for the Arabs by going over there in the first place. We were never there for that reason, or for the reasons given by George Bush. The enemy is George Bush and the Bushians. This, I believe, includes a number of Democrats, like Senators Liebowitz and Clinton. As long as America keeps troops in the Middle East the Arabs are going to try to make life Hell for Americans. If they have to do it by using car bombs and destroying their own people and infrastructure, they will do it. When you are fighting a war to protect your culture and your homeland, and you are fighting a military power with superior military technology, you have to use a “scorched earth” strategy. You have to fight a political war. You have to cause injury to yourself in order to cause injury to your enemy.
The Western powers, the U. S. and Britain, and those that are over there helping the U.S., have to get out of Iraq and the Middle East before the car bombings will stop.
We are not in a position to be telling the Arabs or Iraqis how to have peace. They are the only ones who can do that, and America needs to shut up and eat some humble pie. America needs to reject strongly the Americans who voted for war, and needs to start paying reparations, not dictating the terms of the Iraqi peace.
So, what is the mission? How will we know if America has won or lost? What is the measure?
This “war” has ALWAYS been based on a lie. America invaded and now occupies a soveraign nation that did not pose an imminent threat.
America is a terrorist nation that should be sanction by the UN and the rest of the civilized world.
To Mr. jcmIDbean:
First, I’m delighted to see people with military background here at CommonDreams. Glad to have you.
Second, I think it’s fair to say that most Progressive types do support the troops. We believe that the most effective way we can support them is to insist that those brave people be used for honorable causes that project the greatest virtues of our nation, like they were in the second world war.
In contrast, the Iraq was was based on lies. Many of us knew it at the time, more know it now. Most of the country’s citizens doubt the competency of our President, and many doubt his word. I certainly wouldn’t want to be a soldier with him as my boss.
To think that someone like Pat Tillman, for example, would be killed for the likes of Bush and his cronies is just intolerable, and for him to be used as a poster-boy for political advantage is just plain disgusting.
Instead of putting these fine people into that meatgrinder, I think we ought to devote the lives and hopes of our young generation to causes like building the $100 laptop computer that every person in the entire world can use to get educated and climb out of poverty.
Wouldn’t you rather see that as the face America presents to the world?
You seem like a very mature, intelligent person, and your good sense is readily apparent. I hope you’ll give my remarks some thought, because we really need some tough, can-do types to change how this world operates.
Addenda to Mr. jcmIDbean:
I hear your remark about abandoning hope for a better world. That is the only, the singular, justification for invading Iraq that has any validity at all for me.
If only that was truly why we did it. Do you honestly believe that was the motivation of the neo-cons?
All that notwithstanding, I’ll say it to you directly: I appreciate the enormous sacrifice that the soldiers are making. This is one of the two great trajedies of this war - the honorable intentions of the soldiers .vs. the cynicism and selfishness of our leaders.
The other is the enormous suffering of the Iraqis.
How convenient to speak always about supporting our troops when those same people haven’t bothered to find out how dispicable has been the treatment of the wounded returning soldiers—not just at Walter Reid but by the very service that is supposed to make sure they aren’t left floundering after a terrible wounding. It makes me postively sick!!!! Rah rah!!!! Support the troop in Iraq who are fighting, but then toss them aside like so much rubbish when they no longer “serve” the purposes of these war criminals and war profiteers! FOR OUR SOLDIERS SAKE, WAKE UP AMERICA!!! The debate is fake and framed so crookedly, that you have to be blind not to see how you’re being deceived.
George Bush is holding our troops hostage in Iraq. The ransom he demands from the American people is enough money to secure the oil fields long enough to divide them among his friends.
Someone better send out for pizza and cigarettes before he kills them all.
Hadn’t you heard? The Americans plan to divide Iraq into three provinces: Unleaded, Premium and Supreme.
Petraeus–Ph.D. and all–will go down in history as just another dupe of the neocons. Colin Powell, move over–you have company.
The Kurds were left out when countries were being doled out, leaving them only to assimilate into any country that would take them. They settled in the region of western Turkey, NW Iran and northern Iraq. In Turkey, their way of life was not in line with the government, so the government enforced “oppressive” standards on the Kurdish population, which led to retaliation, which led to the United States arming Turkey with high tech weapons to take care of the problem!
After the Gulf War settled down, the United States allowed Saddam to fly his helicopters against the Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south. They slaughtered people so happy to see Saddam gone; they were going into Baghdad to take back their country.
Instead they were gunned down by Saddam. None of this makes sense. NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY NORMAL SENSE!
Sorry, I mean Eastern Turkey
Whew…everyone certainly has good points. From what
I see there is also other agendas in place and it
includes the military industrial complex along with
other “corporations” and those no bid or low bid
contract frenzies…and behind these corporations
are millions of stockholders expecting those great
returns on their investments. These people help
to insure the “funding” of the intentions of these
corporations/government and those people are just
as participant and responsible as those we see
and hear using the war to drive the very dirty
“business” of war.
I think the reason in part why it doesn’t make
sense is because we are not looking at individuals
who are insisting on the war who share the same
reasoning or world view as those of us who want
peace and acccountability. The agenda in place
is about “positioning” within the “new world order,”
which includes the new industrialization of China
and its power over America because of it holding
so much of our “foreign debt.” China and Japan
both hold the majority of loans and truly all they
would have to do is to sell off these loans to get
rid of the inflationary US dollar and our economy
will collapse according to some of the best global
economists far worse than the Crash of 1929 because
it will start a run on those holding US currency to
get rid of it.
America has never been in so vulnerable postion
economically. The agenda for America is the Agenda
they had for Argentina…the privatization of ALL
PUBIC ASSETS. Privatization is happening every where
at every level and companies like Blackwater are the
ever present visible evidence of what the agendas
are.
The doctrine of Preemption conceived over 20 years
ago is now the new economics…”privatize the profits
socialize the costs.”
I think to really understand what is happening we
need to step back and see the basics of what “they”
are doing and in order to do that we have to give
up trying to see how they “aren’t” doing what they
were elected to do…of course we absolutely know
for certain that they weren’t elected. These people
stole both elections, but what is worse is that
they were allowed to keep power twice. And for me
the complacency within our own government officials
and leaders is what I worry about most, as the fox
is literally in the henhouse and there’s no one
there to care enough to stop it.
How does Petraeus know the worst is yet to come if he is not planning himself the next
massive assault against civilians and maliciously ill equipped troops?
The most powerful army in the world fighting
’suicide bombers’? Who are these suicide bombers? Probably innocent detainees forced to blow themselves up and kill black and hispanic soldiers sent exactly for this purpose.
The children and civilians we are traumatizing do not count.
Hillary has a brilliant mind BUT she has become a mouthpiece of the
military industry. A betrayal impossible to forgive.
Postmortem, postmortem and more postmortems.You reap what you sow.
Apart from wanting to control Iraqi oil and fattening the likes of Halliburton, America had absolutley no right invading and occupying Iraq.
Now that America is there (out of sheer greed), Americans must be prepared to supply the bodybags and take care of those who are, luckily, only maimed and mentally deranged for life.
The show realy begins when those mentally damaged are let lose on the American streets again to create unimaginable havoc.
There is no way to WIN the war in Iraq. We have choices.
1. Leave now and watch the carnage from afar.
2. Leave later and watch the carnage from afar - after taking many more casualties.
3.Install a different puppet government then do 1 or 2 above.
4. Kill or drive out all of them and install our own selected population. Then do 1 or 2 above.
All of these are ways to LOSE the war. The way to win is to stay out of other countries militarily, but be a beacon for everything good, true, and peaceful to the best of our ability.
If anyone cares to look it up (our news “journalists” certainly don’t seem interested), George W. Bush intimated he wanted to invade Iraq while he was still Governor of Texas!
Type “Mickey Herskowitz 1999″ (Bush’s original biographer before Karen Hughes was pulled in to “whitewash” it) in Google and you can find the quote where the twerp waxed poetic on the importance of a second war in Iraq to ‘one-up’ his daddy and being a presidential looking “commander-in-chief.”
Lots of interesting ideas about why Bush invaded Iraq and eliminated Saddam and his regime. All inspire the constant reminder of the scene in Michael Moore’s movie, Farenheit 911, show Bushes I and II shaking hands with King Abdullah (ok, I’m not absolutely sure that name is correct, but the King of Saudi Arabia, K?). There’s no dialogue so we are left to imagine what deal has just been sealed. I, for one, choose to believe that we agreed to eliminate ‘that evil upstart in Iraq’ for the Saudis in exchange for lots of oil. And with W’s IQ of 91, I’m guessing his first thought was that he’ll get to play GI Joe for real.
I fully support our troops. I just don’t support the guy who isn’t ready to stop playing with their lives, while leaving our USA pretty much unprotected.
Angelina: why are you and I the only people in this comment section who are concerned about China and Japan calling in our debt?
SkyWriter because the rest do not realize what it means, nor what is in store. For some reason people in the USA seem to think that the rest of the world wants them to keep their lifestyle! At the other persons expense to boot.
Chicago: I assume (yeah, i know) you refer to my comment about the astounding USA debt. Yes, I agree this country seems to be populated by people with suspicious similarities to the ostrich. Sticking our heads in the sand and hoping ’someone’ will fix the problems. I grew up with that philosphy, with the idea that the world looked up to us and wanted to ‘be’ us. My shame (each and every American must begin to take some responsibility for letting this debacle continue) over my country’s illegal involvement in Iraq is great.
Perhaps when China and Japan demand pmt of our trillion-plus debt (or is it a gazillion now?), and Americans get a taste of what it’s like NOT to live the dream, we will finally stop with the smug attitudes and find out what ‘labor’ truly means.
I’m off to buy a tent.
The worst enemy our kids in Iraq have is behind them in Washington.
Bush is not just “dragging his feet”.. That implies he has a solid grasp of the situation he, as Front Man, helped create and knows what he should do to fix it. Neither is correct.
As he has ably demonstrated in every thing he has been given to do, he is a complete and utter failure. But so too, in the final analysis, are all his business and political enablers, whether they be the Zionists in AIPAC, AEI etc, the greedy industrialists, the rabid Right Wing Nut Jobs or the rabid (so called) Christian Nut Jobs. They are all self interested and evil.
The US will never be able to recover any semblance of respect in the world community until it/they remove this evil bunch and hold them to account for the enourmous crimes they have committed against humanity, for their own petty shallow and greedy self aggrandisement.
Until and unless these creatures are removed by popular actions, the people of the US themselves are at grave risk from their long term plans.
Only the US people can effect the changes necessary to bring an end, once and for all, to the situation.
How can we let the Bush regime kill and cripple so many innocent people without demanding that they be impeached and prosecuted for those crimes against humanity?
Why are Americans so complacent?
Americans aren’t complacent, aum33. They’re ignorant, self-centered, and arrogant, and utterly incapable of comprehending the horror their government has unleashed in Iraq, and elsewhere. They’re stuck in an Old West of the tough sheriff (ironically a word drawn from Arabic) mythos. They still think the US is the greatest country in the world, despite the statistics in various areas showing that we pretty much suck at the important stuff. But oh wow, we’ve got the hugest military and spent more money on it than everyone else in the world, so we must be the greatest. It’s a load of crap. But then what can you expect from a people who think NASCAR racing is interesting and that rigged wrestling matches are sport, who believe their true purpose in life is to shop and who think that their kid is educated if he passes a standardized test. You’ve got a lot of people here who would be good little Nazis, and who just couldn’t comprehend what went wrong when the boot comes crashing down on their neck.
BTW, on the debt with China and Japan, they’re very unlikely to call it in in an attempt to put a halt to our depredations in the world. Calling the debt would crash the United States and simultaneously the world economy, including their own, which they aren’t willing to do. Money trumps morality. Or perhaps there’s just a moral choice - crash an evil regime in Washington that’s killing a few hundred thousand people, or crash the world economy into a depression that will most likely kill millions and send a financial earthquake cum tsunami through every government on earth. I think the leadership in China and Japan, whatever their faults, are more rational than the psychotics in the White House.