To the editor:
Sometime in September, 2007, a top general and Iraqi Ambassador will give the President, Congress, and the public an official assessment of President Bush’s military surge begun a few months ago. Many pundit arguments and guessing about what is expected to be in that report has aired on radio and TV lately.
While an upbeat report surely would please many, a neutral report would validate what many think is both the truth and what will be the case, and a negative report would further fuel anti war sentiments and advocates; no mater what these reports are, we face a disaster and the biggest lie concerning the war will be blatantly exposed.
The surge was forcefully, loudly, and clearly advertised as a means to allow the Iraqi government to accomplish clearly stated tasks – tasks created by the Iraqi leaders themselves. Among these important tasks deemed essential to getting a genuine united government in place were: devising a fair, clear method of sharing Iraq’s massive oil revenue; changing their constitution to allow for fair and sensible sharing of governance between Iraq’s ethnic constituencies; and undoing the draconian anti Baathist rules made when the U.S. controlled Iraq’s government. None of these tasks nor other governance needs have been dealt with by the top Iraqi leader or their Parliament.
In fact, most of the time, so many Parliament members repeatedly fail to show up for meetings no work can be accomplished and these members still get paid and hold their posts. Various sectarian groups drop out of the government when things fail to go their way. Iraqi’s government is a sham. The Prime Minister has shown his serious ethnic partisanship on several occasions which infuriates other groups and results in further lack of trust and heightened anger and sense of betrayal.
No matter what the general and Ambassador say, the surge failed to get Iraqi leaders to act. Therefore, the surge failed! There is no sign they will change their ways. It seems that as long as the U.S. is there with its mighty military and seemingly endless money supply – much of which is being wasted, lost, or stolen, some Iraqis are perfectly willing to let us lose our precious lives and hard earned treasury while a significant number of Iraqis want us to go. We have to leave now!
The loudest, shrillest, and painfully silliest complaint about our immediate departure is that “there will be a blood bath.” What do they think has been going on? When we leave, whether it is now, months, years, or decades from now, the inevitable bloodbath will commence. It is the nature of the people in that part of the world. Let’s save American lives and treasure and leave immediately; they are not worth the price we have paid for Bush’s Cheney’s, and Rumsfeld’s colossal folly.
Ken Petress
Presque Isle
