US Soldiers - Overstretched and Unprotected

While President Bush increases our troop level in Iraq, his nominee for Attorney General, Albert Gonzales, called the Geneva Convention “obsolete” and “quaint.”

By Steve Fowle

The Bush administration announced on Wednesday that it was planning to raise the level of American troops in Iraq by 12,000 in order to reduce the level of violence before elections are held there in January. Given the necessary complexity of military planning, it’s hard not to suspect that the Pentagon knew the additional troops would be needed at least a month ago, but chose not to announce it before the elections here in November. Timing, as the comedians say, is everything.

Instead of coming home soon, some 4000 members of the 25th Infantry Division, 3500 from the 1st Cavalry Division, and another 3100 from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit will have their tours extended on short notice. Another 1500 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division will be sent from their base at Fort Bragg. Their sacrifice is necessary if the people who brought us Shock, Awe, and the Great Iraqi Cakewalk of 2003 are to bring the world their piece de resistance: democracy in Iraq.

Democracy was not, of course, the reason we invaded that country. You can’t invade another country that hasn’t attacked you just because you think they ought to have a democracy. That’s against international law. No, democracy is a side dish, like a large order of fries with that Big Mac. In this case, the entree was the removal of an evil despot who gassed his own people, along with the removal of all his thousands of tons of weapons of mass destruction. In the nick of time, before he nukes Omaha.