Edited on Sat Aug-06-05 11:50 AM by Mark E. Smith
... Foreign Relations Committee.
Now here's a fine and familiar rhetorical trick. First paint and glowingly optimistic picture of a rather unfortunate foreign military debacle ...
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The Bottom Line -- Observations From Operation Iraqi Freedom: June 2005:
1st - US Military Forces in Iraq are superb. Our Army-Marine ground combat units with supporting Air and Naval Power are characterized by quality military leadership, solid discipline, high morale, and enormous individual and unit courage. Unit effectiveness is as good as we can get. This is the most competent and battle wise force in our nation's history. They are also beautifully cared for by the chain-of-command -- and they know it. (Food, A/C sleeping areas, medical care, mental health care, home leave, phone/e-mail contact with families, personal equipment, individual and unit training, targeted economic incentives in the battle area, visibility of tactical leadership, home station care for their families, access to news information, etc).
2nd - The point of the US war effort is to create legitimate and competent Iraqi national, provincial, and municipal governance. We are at a turning point in the coming six months. The momentum is now clearly with the Iraqi Govt and the Coalition Security Forces. The Sunnis are coming into the political process. They will vote in December. Unlike the Balkans - the Iraqis want this to succeed. Foreign fighters are an enormously lethal threat to the Iraqi civilian population, the ISF, and Coalition Forces in that order. However, they will be an increasing political disaster for the insurgency. Over time they are actually adding to the credibility of the emerging Iraqi govt. We should expect to see a dwindling number of competent, suicide capable Jihadist. Those who come to iraq -- will be rapidly killed in iraq. the picture by next summer will be unfavorable to recruiting foreigners to die in Iraq while attacking fellow Arabs.
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... then identify the usual scapegoats to take responsibility for potential failure. First the American people and their elected representitives...
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Top Centcom Vulnerabilities:
1st - Premature drawdown of U.S. ground forces driven by dwindling U.S. domestic political support and the progressive deterioration of Army and Marine manpower. (I particular, the expected melt-down of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve in the coming 36 months)
2nd - Alienation of the U.S. Congress of the American people caused by Iraqi public ingratitude and corruption.
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... and then, of course, the messenger.
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Coalition Public Diplomacy Policy Is a Disaster:
1st - The US media is putting the second team in Iraq with some exceptions. Unfortunately, the situation is extremely dangerous for journalists. The working conditions for a reporter are terrible. They cannot travel independently of US military forces without risking abduction or death. In some cases, the press has degraded to reporting based on secondary sources, press briefings which they do not believe, and alarmist video of the aftermath of suicide bombings obtained from Iraqi employees of unknown reliability.
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You know, we reeeeally didn't lose the Viet Nam War, right? Nope. It was all those protesters and unfaithful citizens back home that lost it, egged on by an out of touch and faithless media.
The same old lies, repeated over and over again.
http://foreign.senate.gov/testimony/2005/McCaffreyTestimony050718.pdf
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