Only a blind man would fail to see what extensive damage is being done to the fabric of the American Military by the recycling of units, regular, reserve and national guard back to Iraq for the third time.

To keep sending these young men back to the meat grinder, to participate in a Kabuki dance without purpose, to have them continue to be maimed and killed, in the service of a flawed strategy is mindless and beyond criminal.

When the earliest consideration of invading Iraq, was being discussed in the highest offices, only those enthusiasts who supported the project were listened to. Generals who objected or set too high a list of requirements for a successful outcome were brushed aside and
retired. It soon became clear that the path to promotion was to keep one's mouth shut and go along. Criticism not welcome. Rather than determine how many men and what kinds were necessary to fight a war to a successful conclusion with appropriate plans for an orderly
occupation, we followed Rumsfeld who said "You go to war with the army you've got," rather than counsel, you amass an army capable of carrying out the mission for which it will be charged. Build the army you need.

We permitted the strategy to be mapped out by rank amateurs, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the like, people who specialize in wish gratification and spell binding rather than analysis of the nuts and bolts of a problem and the tools necessary to solve them.
We are now reaping a bitter harvest in Iraq, caught in the middle of a civil war, a real "tar baby", with U.S. troops being killed daily and having no active mission other than show the flag and give support to the government while trying to stay out of the way while Sunnis and
Shiite's are butchering each other with enthusiasm.

Although our very presence has become an irritant to those very Iraqis we sought to help we still hear the hollow cries of "stay the course". don't "cut and run" as if these mantras can have any real meaning or help arrive at a workable solution. A mentality appropriate to the
Alamo or some movie script where the cavalry charges over the hill in the last few frames seems to have seized the White house as if this mindset will somehow lead us out of the darkness. To listen to Carl Rove lecture about not dishonoring the dead, as if more dead will create more honor and glory is enough to sicken any thinking individual. The name of the game is to achieve an achievable objective, not look good while dying.

When the Marines were slaughtered in Beirut by the Hizballah they were without a mission, showing the flag as Reagan described it, standing around with unloaded weapons and targets on their backs, Our current situation is not much better, patrolling in the middle of a religous
fight in which we cannot take sides, and daily taking casualties.

Aside from the needless losses we will sustain in extracting us from this tar baby, we have done irreparable damage to the force structure by recycling units 2 or 3 times back into action, exhausting their espirit and reducing their chances of getting home alive, and for what ?

You will never see young American's enlist in the Guard if it is to be used up in this fashion, in a pointless war; a war not sufficiently important for this administration to draft young men into service. A policy that insures less political fallout, but also decimates the Guards and the Reserves.

The stark reality is that our forces are at a all time low, both in morale and material yet we send emissaries around the world posturing with implied threats of military intervention if U. S. mandates are not conformed to. The reality is we don't have enough of a military to undertake new adventures.

Time to stop calling other nations evil and endeavor to engage in dialogue which will lower the temperature and hopefully reestablish the world prestige which we once enjoyed.

Publius