McCain is almost a tragic guy, as is Murtha. When the administration was first contemplating invading Iraq Murtha was for it, and McCain was critical. McCain was right in his criticisms. The very idea of invading a sovereign country without using sufficient resources to do so offended people with military training and the ability to look at the war strategically. But most of those people kept their mouths shut, or even went along. If Colin Powel had spoke his mind instead of running his dog and poney show. If even one leader of the Joint Chiefs or the administration had defected publicly. The invasion might have been stopped.
Our leaders are cowards. They kiss behind and act like sychophants until they have a retirement check and then write tell alls. What a shame that they can't say "I resign on principle." If they did then crooks like this current bunch couldn't get away with all this.
But once it began, the die was cast. I want the US to pull out, but I also know that there is no easy or honorable way to extract ourselves from this SNAFU without at least some sacrifice of blood and treasure. Do we want another Darfur? Does anybody remember what it looked like when we pulled out of Saigon. The US doesn't have the stomach for creating colonies or suppressing insurgencies. We should be leaving sovereign nations to run their own business, and only helping when we are wanted or when the help reflects our capabilities.
As Colin Powel warned "We broke it, we own it [the mess not the country]. Time to get out. But that ain't going to be easy.
Of course Congress could just cut off funding to Iraq. That might work, it might make things a whole lot uglier.
Chris
Posted by cholte at July 29, 2007 05:24 PM