mmarsh
Active member
In order to get them to believe it. You need to tell them "Look on such and such date such and such Brigade is withdrawing from Province X.You need to take responsibilty there." And then do it.
That's what we haven't been doing. We've let them drag their feet. We need to stop.
Amazing you can I actually agree on something.
Why do you think this hasn't happened? This is similar to the game plan we had in Vietnam, the fact we didn't have one. The problem IMHO is not with the Military, its has to do with, (as usual)...Washington DC politics.
One of the biggest differences between the Obama and McCain plans for Iraq is that Bush/McCain both privately feel that their needs to be a permanent military presence in Iraq. An Army/Air Force base to keep tabs on countries like Iran and Syria. Saudi Arabia is too politically hot to maintain a continued militarily presence so basically the US is looking for new Real Estate in the Middle East. It goes back to the old cold war military philsophy of power projection.
So when McCain talks about withdrawl hes means only of occupational forces (the people who patrol the streets) he does not mean to remove US troops completly. This is what irks me about his plan because the Arabs are very nationalistic, they will not tolerate any foreign troops on their soil for long in any capacity. Espicially when it as seen as helping Israel. There is bound to be violence, I bet my hat on it.
Its an election year so the GOP doesnt like talking about this, but that is what McCain meant about "staying in Iraq 100 years". McCain will of course not confirm this now (although he has said this in the past), but he wont deny it either.