Big, Long, Gone

When Rummy left the Pentagon I believed that they had lost their master of the obvious. I should say their oblivious master of the obvious. Rummy was great at stating those great truths we already knew and stating them as if he was brilliant for noticing them. His “known knowns” quote is pure obvious gold, but it seems Rummy was the symptom and not the disease at that military institution because they are still stating the obvious while trying to sound brilliant.

Today the Pentagon unofficially released their newest assessment of troop strength needed for Iraq and have given us three options after a long study. We will call this recent release the “Big, Long, Gone” option.

“Big” means we will need to increase our troop strength in Iraq for an indeterminate length of time. “Long” means we do not increase troop strength, but increase the tours of duty for those already there. “Gone” obviously means we leave Iraq. I cannot wait until we get some actual intelligence behind our military instead of these stupid cleaver word games.

Can anyone reading this give me an option they left out? I cannot think of a single one. I mean stay, stay big, or leave basically covers everything. These options are actually the same ones we had before we even went into Iraq and none of these plans will really help with the current secular violence happening in Iraq. Longer stays or leaving completely is not going to help the problem that we created (and do not mistake for a second that it is us who created the problem) and more troops will not convince anyone we plan on leaving.

Iraq was not great before we got there and was evil under Saddam, but chaos is worse than evil any day. Evil can be anticipated and countered, but chaos has no pattern and can not be anticipated. You never know when chaos is going to strike you next once you remove the order. We removed the order without installing a new system of order and now we are dealing with the price of our folly. The truth is that there is only one option for Iraq and it is one that will make both the left and right hate me so I know I must be right. The only solution left is to increase the troops in Iraq and completely take over the country. This means we need a draft.

No politician is going to suggest a draft because they know it will be re-election death, but that is a risk they must take. They must risk their political career to save this nation from the mess they created. We are short of well-trained troops right now. Between Iraq and Afghanistan we are busted. North Korea and Iran know we do not have the force to do anything about them and they know we lost the good faith of the world to help us deal with them. The only choice left is conscription.

I realize that military life is hard enough with people who volunteered to be there, but we are in a situation right now that demands we ignore what we would rather do. The statement by the Pentagon today is simply more spinning of wheels. It is the illusion of progress while not actually doing anything. They know the options they gave us today are bullshit but are terrified of being the first to suggest the “D” word. This is why I am suggesting it now. There is no other option if we are going to continue on our current path of endless war.