June 13, 2007, - 1:58 pm
Absurd: America’s Worst Enemy is in the Mirror
By
Why are we losing in Iraq and Afghanistan? Because we don’t want to win. Don’t believe me. Read this vomit-inducer by columnist David Ignatius from Sunday’s Washington Post (thanks to Dissecting Leftism):
Improvised Explosive Defeat?
The photographs gathered by The Post each month in a gallery called Faces of the Fallen are haunting. The soldiers are so young, enlisted men and women mostly, usually dressed in the uniforms they wore in Iraq and Afghanistan. What’s striking is that most of them were killed by roadside bombs known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. . . .
The insurgents who kill our young soldiers are ruthless, but we have sometimes been cautious in our response. Take the question of targeting bomb makers: There may be an unlimited supply of explosives in Iraq, but there is not an unlimited supply of people who know how to wire the detonators. In 2004, CIA operatives in Iraq believed that they had identified the signatures of 11 bomb makers. They proposed a diabolical — but potentially effective — sabotage program that would have flooded Iraq with booby-trapped detonators designed to explode in the bomb makers’ hands. But the CIA general counsel’s office said no. The lawyers claimed that the agency lacked authority for such an operation, one source recalled.
There are technologies that would allow us to detonate every roadside bomb in Iraq by heating the wires in the detonators to the point that they triggered an explosion. But these systems could severely harm civilians nearby, so we’re not using them, either.
And David Ignatius, the author of this, is a liberal, NOT a conservative.
If this was our attitude going in, we should have stayed home.
Thanks to reader Ari for the tip.
Tags: Afghanistan, America, author, Central Intelligence Agency, columnist, David Ignatius, Faces, General Counsel, improvised explosive devices, Iraq, Washington Post
There are indisputable facts about Iraq.
(1) We are there because Bush instigated the war. Forget for a moment the alleged cause, the president sent troops. Yes the Congress concurred, so what. Bush gave the orders to go. TRUE. Absolutely true.
(2) After the Iraqi army surrendered we have done nothing of significance that resembles warfare. We merely remain as targets. And we slowly die, a trickle at a time. TRUE. Absolutely true.
(3) We have spent (thrown away) around $500 billion give or take a $100 billion. All for no gain. If Warren Buffet invested $500 billion in an enterprise, you would have an equivalent benefit. TRUE. Absolutely true
So why did Bush do it? Is he a moron? Is there a checks and balance process for the federal government? Given the nature of the catastrophe and the current actions, there can be only two answers-
The first- it was a deliberate effort to cause this chaos (I almost said holocaust, but we aren’t quite there, yet).
The second- we are the most stupid, ineffectual nation on earth.
You decide. I believe both answers are correct.
By the way, I still believe in America, in the Declaration, in the Constitution, in the American people. But we are slipping, badly.
Happiness Pursuer on June 13, 2007 at 2:50 pm