General May See Earl

General May See Early Success in Iraq My Ass
Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus wants to add 17,500 troops in and around Bagdad regardless  of whether the Iraqi army units join the fight as planned. Well, like first of all the Iraqi troops are some of the most ill-trained, unmotivated and incompetent bunch we have ever had the misfortune to work with in the history of modern warfare. So his bright idea is to fight the war for them. Then what? Of course they will want us to stick around to make sure that the supposed peace we are supposed to accomplish in the next few months will remain in effect for the foreseeable future.

Now let’s not forget the fact that there will be a Big increase in terrorist attacks in and around Bagdad and other areas of Iraq. I suspect that Bush will expect us to redistribute the troops at the same time keeping the peace in Bagdad to quell the uprisings (remember what I said about putting out fires in one place and another starting up somewhere else) elsewhere. In the meantime what happens in Bagdad? Once again we will be spread too thin and he will want to pour even more troops into the fray. One thing I can say for sure, that ain’t gonna happen.  You can bank on that.

“Petraeus will require his troops to operate and live among the population, hoping to safeguard security and economic gains for neighborhoods cleared of violence” He wants to do what? Put our troops in amongst the Iraqi people (let me remind you that we don’t know who are our friends and who are our enemies) putting them in harms way or in an even more dangerous position than they are now. I’ll tell you this, if it were up to me, that idea will never happen, not in a million years. Not only does it put our troops in danger, it also puts innocent people needlessly in danger too.

Another thing I don’t feel good about is the fact that the general is going to try to micro-manage the war personally by visiting the troops where they fight and telling them what he wants them to do. The best bosses I have ever had never micro-managed, they found that when they delegated they got more done. Nobody likes a nosy boss leaning over their shoulder watching their every movement. I know I don’t. I don’t think it is good for morale either.

Of course I’m only a little voice from Middle America. My personal opinion is that it is not going to work and that we should quit while we’re ahead. This is getting worse by the minute. The shit is going to hit the fan. I’m going to say I told you so. Just wait.
What do you think?