However, I disagree with Michael Madson on the concept of "Go Big or Go Home", mainly because I'm not sure what the president decreed the other night is really "going big", 21,500 troops may not be enough to solve what has been allowed to happen in Iraq, especially in Baghdad. Perhaps that number of troops would have worked over a year ago to try to establish control in Iraq but the opposition has continued to grow and grow stronger. Another huge concern is how the minority population of the Sunnis have been and will continue to be treated under the President's new plan. Giving more control to the Iraqi military and the Iraqi police who some have accused of being behind kidnappings and murders of Sunni Iraqis is going to make the situation worse as far as the division/civil war concerns.
I do agree with Michael that "go home" is not a viable option unless we want to have spent billions of dollars, lost way to many American and Iraqi lives to watch Iraq become a version of Iran. Yet I can't help but thinking that the President's solution is going to be too little too late and that so much of it depends on the Iraqi government being able to perform to standards that they have not demonstrated they are capable of. When a country silences reporters, television stations and knows there are questions as to military as well as police personal killing innocent civilians, it's hard to be hopeful that they will be able to make Baghdad safe, even with an additional "surge" of troops.
Thank you to Michael for sharing his blog ModernOpinion with us thru this PayPerPost sponsored post.
2 comments:
I think "going big" would be 300,000-400,000. If you need to stop something, you need to do it with overwhelming numbers that can take and control every section.
I agree with you that would be big, I don't see 21,500 as big either in the scope of what is happening there.
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