Meh.

In October of 2005, 2 years ago now, I did a podcast called Bush’s Iraq Exit Strategy (MP3, 19:42, 9.1MB) where I predicted exactly what is happening here. Bush’s Iraq exit strategy is to leave office. It’s always been his strategy, ever since the neo-Con boys got surprised by the fact that Dick Cheney doesn’t always lie and post-invasion Iraq is a hell of a lot harder than they thought it would be.

I understand their thinking. Keep things secure until the government can defend itself. They don’t know any other way to think. They can’t conceive of any other option than just staying the course. So, yet again, we are told to be patient.

In my opinion, we haven’t even proven that we are not making things worse, not to mention actually making things better. Many Iraqis believe that we will never leave; that we are permanent occupiers. Bush’s speech the other day would not give them any reason to think otherwise.

As I’ve said ten million times, Iraq is a mess and none of our options are good ones anymore. The notion that this option, this option that we’ve been trying for 4 years, with trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of dead bodies – the notion that this is the best option we have is completely daft.

Osama bin laden keeps beating these guys. He beats them at every step. He plays them like a fiddle. We are still chasing the ghost of Osama bin laden. Bush isn’t evil. He’s incompetent. Utterly incompetent.

That’s why he should be impeached, by the way, not because he “lied” but because he demonstrated extreme incompetence.

I completely, 100% support our troops. I have family in the military and I have tremendous respect for the great people that volunteer to put themselves in harm’s way for the benefit of the USA. National defense is necessary and these fine people continue the legacy of what literally made this country possible. I salute them and I will back them with my dollars and with whatever political will I am able to influence.

But I will not allow people to use the banner of “support or troops” to force feed me ineffective and irresponsible foreign policy.

I understand that we want to stand unified, together against our enemies. It is an uncomfortable reality that the whole world watches us debate this stuff. But reality it is. It is a lame and completely incorrect argument to claim that people against the Iraq war are giving aid to the enemy or undermining our troops.

We all know what is wrong in Iraq. Shitty leadership from above. By that I mean the strategic goals outlined by the President. It’s like sending the Marines into “solve” the Israel/Palestine crisis. No one would recommend that. It’s the wrong tool for the job. Yes, security is important, but the complications related to the occupation of an Arab country are fucking numerous!

This whole mess is because Bush & Co. did not know how to achieve what they wanted to achieve. (Yes, there is little tiny progress.) Before we went in the Left was screaming, “Hello, bull in the china shop. Not as easy as it sounds.” All along we’ve been warning that this could get much messier than the Rose Colored Glasses club was talking about:

“It’s hard to conceive,” Wolfowitz testified before the Senate armed services committee, “that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and secure the surrender of Saddam’s security forces and his army. Hard to believe.”

Now, because we were (unfortunately) correct, we have to take this shit about “you don’t support the troops”. Bullshit. We wanted to use the military much more carefully. We wanted to treat our troops better. Bush’s disaster has cost 3500 American lives (so far) and billions of dollars because they did the wrong thing the wrong way and were deluded about it the whole time:

“I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.” (Dick Cheney, June 20, 2005)

An effort misguided, mismanaged and misunderstood by the oil-cozy retard squad. But, boy, it’s really the fault of us Lefties who don’t support the troops!