Dealing with Iraqi Insurgency Not In the Plan

On the 5th anniversary of 9/11 crimes committed against America, President Bush tried to tie the continued Occupation of Iraq with our defense against terrorism. The President told us that:

“Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone. They will not leave us alone. They will follow us. The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.”

Despite the obvious logical flaws in this statement, namely that America is unable to defend our country without occupying Iraq, it is obvious that the President is serious about defeating this terrorist insurgency in Baghdad. He is so serious about it that he has staked our future and safety on the outcome in Baghdad.

But is the President serious about defeating the Iraqi insurgency?

Apparently not. According to Marine Maj. General Richard C. Zilmer, a senior American commander in Iraq, he has enough U.S. troops to accomplish his main mission: training Iraqi security forces:

“For what we are trying to achieve out here I think our force levels are about right," he said. Even so, he said the training of Iraqi soldiers and police had not progressed as quickly as once expected.
"Now, if that mission statement changes — if there is seen a larger role for coalition forces out here to win that insurgency fight — then that is going to change the metrics of what we need out here," he added.

Zilmer says that defeating the insurgency is not in his mission plan. Defeating these insurgents, these terrorists who will not leave us alone, who are stacking up dead bodies in the Iraqi streets every day, these radicals who will follow us home, is not part of the plan for victory in Iraq. The course we are staying in Iraq does not include defeating these people. Even though in the President’s mind “the safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad,” he has not made battling people and defeating them in the streets of Baghdad part of the mission plan.

How much more evidence do people need that this Administration is not interested in the security of this country or Iraq? How much more evidence is needed that this Administration will lie and cheat and sacrifice brave American Troops and allow tens of thousands of Iraqis to die as long as the private contract dollars keep flowing to their friends at companies like Raytheon, Halliburton, and the big oil companies?

How much more evidence do we need before we make them stop?