The Cheap War
Speaking of dissension among the ranks, the Washington Post has an article quoting various military officials saying U.S. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld should resign. While I agree with them, I don't see it happening unless more pictures of prisoner abuse make it to the public eye. Something, so far, that has not happened.
What has happened is exactly what I expected to happen from our Republican Neo-Cons. Secretary Rumsfeld has gone on the offensive attacking his critics and even went so far as to do a " Wag the Dog" moment by going to Iraq yesterday. Thus controlling the story and spinning it in direction away from him. Obviously, the strategy is to stall, deflect, and attack so that his opponents don't have the opportunity to bring him down.
The problem with all of this is that he, and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz should resign. They have led us into a war without a clear, honest, and strategically important objective. Moreover, they have led us into a war without a clear understanding of what victory should look like, or what is usually called an exit strategy.
But worst of all, in my estimation, they have led us into a war whereby they have substituted political concerns for military strategies. From the very beginning, Secretary Rumsfeld scripted what I call "War on the Cheap". By that I mean he wanted to use tactics designed to use as few soldiers as possible with as little cost as possible. For example, before and during the early part of the war, the message was Iraq would be rebuilt using money from the sale of their own oil (something that has not happened and does not appear to be something that will happen in the future). Another example was the blitzkrieg strategy to strike quickly as far as possible as soon as possible. All the while avoiding house-to-house fighting. It was argued that victory would come quickly and with little cost of money or life.
Unfortunately, no strategy survives actual combat because your enemies have a way of forcing changes in strategy. The Cheap War has turned into the expensive war. The cheap strategy has turned into one in which hundreds have died since, what was called the cessation of major operations.
It is one thing to invade a land. But it is completely another to hold it.
The bottom line is we are increasingly involved in a war in which we don't know why we are there and don't know how to get out of. You may well think this sounds vaguely familiar to another war in another time and place, but I couldn't possibly comment on that.
All I can say is what I've said before: What is our objective? How do we plan to achieve this objective? And how do we know when we've reached it and can go home?
Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!