The struggle to understand opposition to surge in the Senate
Too many days lately as I look at news items and blog I have to struggle to avoid calling the Senators who want to abandon the surge in Iraq, stupid idiots. I know that none of them is as knowledgeable about the situation in Iraq as the commander Gen. Petraeus and he has an entirely different view of the situation. It is certainly not because they are smarter or have more knowledge of military science. Gen Petraeus got his PhD. from an Ivy League school in two years, which is unheard of. He wrote the manual on counterinsurgency warfare and is applying that lesson right now with considerable success against an evil enemy. So what is it that shapes these senators opinions if it is not facts about the situation on the ground and knowledge of how to defeat the enemy?
Don Surber has a nice rift on how many times Harry Reid has suggested that the US "change course." It is just more evidence that Reid, unlike Petraeus, is not a very smart man. I think he is surrounded by equally unintelligent members of his party that are pushing a desperate attempt to secure defeat in Iraq.
Jules Crittenden also does a take down on the "bench marks" that have been the subject of some debate this week on progress in Iraq. What is little noted is how disconnected these bench marks are to the real progress that has really out striped the benchmarks in terms of Sunni participation in fighting al Qaeda, which the Democrats have been arguing is not in Iraq. So how did we fool all those Sunni tribes into fighting a phantom?
I have concluded that the real problem is the Senate cloak room and the DC party circuit where Republican Senators listen to the know nothings of the Democrat party and begin to believe that they know what they are talking about. That seems to be the only rational answer to why some GOP senators now think we need to abandon a winning strategy and go back to a losing one. It looks like they are buying into Harry Reid's mindless call for a change and have decided to change back to a FOB force protection, sally forth and whack a mole strategy against al Qaeda "phantoms" in Iraq. It is a proposal that made little sense before the surge and makes absolutely no sense militarily now.
So, I continue to resist calling them stupid idiots. I just do not want to be confused with a left wing blog. But, they do not look very smart. They act like the President is stubborn and does not understand what is going on, but at least he is getting counsel from knowledgeable and intelligent people like Gen. Petraeus and not Harry Reid.
Don Surber has a nice rift on how many times Harry Reid has suggested that the US "change course." It is just more evidence that Reid, unlike Petraeus, is not a very smart man. I think he is surrounded by equally unintelligent members of his party that are pushing a desperate attempt to secure defeat in Iraq.
Jules Crittenden also does a take down on the "bench marks" that have been the subject of some debate this week on progress in Iraq. What is little noted is how disconnected these bench marks are to the real progress that has really out striped the benchmarks in terms of Sunni participation in fighting al Qaeda, which the Democrats have been arguing is not in Iraq. So how did we fool all those Sunni tribes into fighting a phantom?
I have concluded that the real problem is the Senate cloak room and the DC party circuit where Republican Senators listen to the know nothings of the Democrat party and begin to believe that they know what they are talking about. That seems to be the only rational answer to why some GOP senators now think we need to abandon a winning strategy and go back to a losing one. It looks like they are buying into Harry Reid's mindless call for a change and have decided to change back to a FOB force protection, sally forth and whack a mole strategy against al Qaeda "phantoms" in Iraq. It is a proposal that made little sense before the surge and makes absolutely no sense militarily now.
So, I continue to resist calling them stupid idiots. I just do not want to be confused with a left wing blog. But, they do not look very smart. They act like the President is stubborn and does not understand what is going on, but at least he is getting counsel from knowledgeable and intelligent people like Gen. Petraeus and not Harry Reid.
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