Continue the Surge

© Dr. Gary D. Lemmons, September 9, 2007

This week, General David Petraeus, American commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the American Ambassador to Iraq,  will report to the Congress and the American people on the progress of the Surge of American troops in Iraq since last December.

Likely, the report as to the combat arm of the Surge will be positive. Despite the fact that our troops are strained, over-extended, and tired, they continue to perform, as American forces always have, in a highly effective and efficient manner.  As a result of their commitment, the level of insurgent activity throughout Iraq has diminished.

On the political front, the report cannot be as good.  The Iraqi government’s grade, at best, is a D and, many could argue, an F in performance.  While some minor headway has been made between the Sunni and the Shi’a in working together, this progress has come largely from the tribal chiefs and not from initiatives of the government in Baghdad.

George Bush was grossly unprepared for the occupation phase of the Iraqi War.  He relied too much on Donald Rumsfeld’s advice, which was to try to accomplish everything “on the cheap.”  As a consequence, we had too few troops in place when the combat phase of the war ended. 

Instead of appointing an American viceroy, similar to General MacArthur over Japan at the end of World War II, President Bush encouraged the creation of a national government of Iraq.  The effort was honorable, but foolish.  These people had not had any experience of self-government in thousands of years. They were not ready as a nation to launch out on the rough and rugged road of democratic action.  Thus, the different groups: Sunni, Shi’a, Kurds, etc., began to look to their own interests, and the insurgency developed.  Al-Qaeda, sensing the opportunity, ventured into the country, and, although the United States was an occupying power, our “lean, mean, fighting machine” did not possess sufficient quantities of troops to protect the borders of Iraq from the terrorists who sneaked across.

The Surge, in which we are now engaged, was necessitated by the incompetence of President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld in dealing with the occupation.

In all likelihood, General Petraeus is going to call for the Surge to continue and for the troops to remain.  Oh, there will be a token withdrawal, but the preponderance of 100,000 troops will need to remain in that country.

I favor this.

If General Petraeus can maintain the status quo and prevent Al-Qaeda from making any further headway for the next year, the effort will be worth it.

In January of 2009, we will have a new President.  Democrat or Republican, the new chief executive will have the opportunity to approach the difficulty of Iraq with a more logical and sensible rationale.  That person, whoever it may be, will not be bound by ego and stubborn pride of opinion.  No further progress will be made under President Bush.  He has lost whatever objectivity he may have possessed with regard to this conflict.

I only pray that General Petraeus and our troops can endure until a new administration is inaugurated.

Incidentally, the reason a fifth of Americans cannot identify the United State on a world map is because emphasis on "geography" has been taken out of the public school curriculum.  It is sort of hard to devise map skill questions that can be answered by bubbling in a circle on standardized tests.