The "Surge" in Shambles

The so called "surge" was not the plan of the military commanders on the ground in Iraq. The "surge" was not cooked up by military planners in the Pentagon. The "surge" was dreamed up by a policy dink at the American Enterprise Institute. When the commanders on the ground refused to sign on, they were moved aside and replaced by commanders who would do what they were told.

Now that he has met the enemy face to face in Iraq, Gen. Petraeus has scrapped the new Iraqi Security Plan. The plan called for Iraqi security forces to take the lead. That has been dropped. The plan called for accelerated training of Iraqis. That has been put on hold. The plan now calls for US military forces to take full control of the entire country, and then turn over control to Iraqi forces. Iraqis will not control the security in the country by the end of the year, contrary to pronouncements by the Iraqi Prime Minister.

The US military doesn't have the personnel necessary to carry out this new plan. By the end of the summer, Gen. Petraeus will be asking for and getting further deployments of National Guard troops to the war zone. There will be no troop withdrawals from Iraq before 2009. And, if John McCain is elected President, those troops will remain until far into his presidency. There is no foreseeable end to our engagement in Iraq.

The troop surge is only about two-thirds deployed, but military casualties have doubled over the past two months. The Shiite militia are laying low, so sectarian killings are down. But they will wait only so long before rejoining the fight. The US military is right now at this moment Balkanizing Baghdad, walling off Sunni and Shiia districts. It is not stopping the suicide bombings, it is only concentrating the targets.

Our troops are in an untenable situtation. It is an entirely proper military strategy to withdraw and reassess the situation. But President Bush is intransegent in his blind religious fervor to save Iraq from itself.

How much more treasure and blood must be wasted before Congress exercises its Constitutitional authority to put a stop to this fiasco? Congress had to give authority for this war to start and Congress can withdraw that authority anytime it sees fit. Only Congress can declare war and only Congress can declare peace. The blood of brave American soldiers is on Congress, now.

The blood of the innocent Americans who will be killed as a result of our failure in Iraq is solely the responsibility of George Bush.