Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Petraeus, The Surge, and The Choices




Petraeus' report essentially confirms what independent journalist/blogger Michael J Totten saw in his recent trip to Iraq. In some places the surge is working and in some it isn't. We can hem and haw all we want about the surge but the simple fact of the matter is that there isn't going to be a significant decrease in troop levels until after W is out of office. Even then the draw down of forces is in my opinion likely only to be enough to prevent genocide in Iraq which means we'll still have a significant number of troops there for years to come.

With those being the most likely options we as voters have a limited number of choices either one crosses their fingers and prays the surge works, one can demand the immediate withdraw of all forces knowing that it'll take two years to accomplish won't be done while W is in office and knowing that we'll probably have to retake Iraq's only port to do it since the Brit's pulled out of there and that a genocide may follow, or one could continue to support the war despite the fact that its been badly run save for what progress the surge has brought.

As for me, I'm crossing my fingers. Odds are though if we can't get it right this time around we never will.