Gen. Odom (Ret.) - Fallacious excuses for prolonging Iraq

guerilla Notable Member

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General Odom testified in front of the Senate yesterday with regards to Iraq. Here are selections from his testimony, which can be completely read in PDF format here.
http://www.senate.gov/~foreign/testimony/2008/OdomTestimony080402a.pdf

Excerpt

A number of reasons are given for not withdrawing soon and completely. I have refuted them repeatedly before but they have more lives than a cat. Let try again me explain why they donâ€™t make sense.

First, it is insisted that we must leave behind military training element with no combat forces to secure them. This makes no sense at all. The idea that US military trainers left alone in Iraq can be safe and effective is flatly rejected by several NCOs and junior officers I have heard describe their personal experiences. Moreover, training foreign forces before they have a consolidated political authority to command their loyalty is a windmill tilt. Finally, Iraq is not short on military skills.

Second, it is insisted that chaos will follow our withdrawal. We heard that argument as the â€œdomino theoryâ€ in Vietnam. Even so, the path to political stability will be bloody regardless of whether we withdraw or not. The idea that the United States has a moral responsibility to prevent this ignores that reality. We are certainly to blame for it, but we do not have the physical means to prevent it. American leaders who insist that it is in our power to do so are misleading both the public and themselves if they believe it. The real moral question is whether to risk the lives of more Americans. Unlike preventing chaos, we have the physical means to stop sending more troops where many will be killed or wounded. That is the moral responsibility to our country which no American leaders seems willing to assume.

Third, nay sayers insist that our withdrawal will create regional instability. This confuses cause with effect. Our forces in Iraq and our threat to change Iranâ€™s regime are making the region unstable. Those who link instability with a US withdrawal have it exactly backwards.

Our ostrich strategy of keeping our heads buried in the sands of Iraq has done nothing but advance our enemiesâ€™ interest. I implore you to reject these fallacious excuses for prolonging the commitment of US forces to war in Iraq.
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Last year, General Petraeus wisely declined to promise a military solution to this political problem, saying that he could lower the level of violence, allowing a limited time for the Iraqi leaders to strike a political deal. Violence has been temporarily reduced but today there is credible evidence that the political situation is far more fragmented. And currently we see violence surge in Baghdad and Basra. In fact, it has also remained sporadic and significant in several other parts of Iraq over the past year, notwithstanding the notable drop in Baghdad and Anbar Province.

More disturbing, Prime Minister Maliki has initiated military action and then dragged in US forces to help his own troops destroy his Shiite competitors. This is a political setback, not a political solution. Such is the result of the surge tactic.
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Excellent read, if anyone has a link to any video of this, it would be much appreciated if you would post it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Eldridge_Odom

William Eldridge Odom (born June 23, 1932) is a retired U.S. Army 3-star general, and former Director of the NSA under President Ronald Reagan, which culminated a 31 year career in military intelligence, mainly specializing in matters relating to the Soviet Union.
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guerilla, Apr 3, 2008 IP

gauharjk Notable Member

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General Odom is smart. He knows there can be no exit strategy. US should permanently withdraw from Iraq, and close all its military bases permanently.

Will there be a full-fledged Civil War if the Army left? US taxpayers money is being used to arm Sunni Militias. The US army has changed sides in Iraq, and is now actually protecting the same people, the Sunnis, whom it targeted in the beginning of the WAR. I guess Iran is a bigger motivator than Al-Quida. The Iraq policy has been turned to fit the new scenario of conflict with Iran.

gauharjk, Apr 3, 2008 IP

guerilla Notable Member

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Interesting set of articles/blog posts about Petraeus.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese445.html

Excerpt

I mean no disrespect, but Gen. David Petraeus is overrated. I don't for a second question his intelligence, patriotism or courage. He just has had the misfortune of coming along at a time when the Pentagon hands out generals' stars and decorations like Mardi Gras beads.

He has medals (commonly called a "fruit salad") from his collarbone almost to his bellybutton, yet he has seen very, very little combat. If you read his military rÃ©sumÃ©, he has been mostly a desk jockey. Again, the medals aren't his fault. The politicians in Washington, those in and those out of uniform, have cheapened them all by too generously handing them out for too little in the way of accomplishments.

The only wounds Gen. Petraeus has suffered were being accidentally shot by one of his own men and breaking his pelvis in a noncombat parachute jump. He led the 101st Airborne Division from Kuwait to Mosul, Iraq, in 2003. That was a cakewalk. Saddam Hussein's army was technologically obsolete, demoralized and falling apart. It lasted only weeks. And that's it for his combat record. Even then, how close he got to the actual fighters, I don't know.
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http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/200...08664000&en=3c453633cbe8333a&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Excerpt

Never in this breathing world have I seen a person clog up and erode his speaking â€” as distinct from his reading â€” with more â€œuhs,â€ â€œersâ€ and â€œumsâ€ than poor Crocker. Surely he has never seen himself talking: â€œUh, that is uh, a, uh, matter that we, er, um, uh are carefully, uh, considering.â€ (Not a parody, an actual Crocker sentence. And not even the worst.)

These harsh-on-the-ear insertions, delivered in his less than melodious, hoarse-sounding tenor, are maddening. And their effect is to say that the speaker is painfully unsure of what he wants, er, um, to say.

If Crockerâ€™s collection of these broken shards of verbal crockery were eliminated from his testimony, everyone there would get home at least an hour earlier.
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guerilla, Apr 13, 2008 IP

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Gen. Odom (Ret.) - Fallacious excuses for prolonging Iraq

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