July 25, 2007--A Question
I’ve been wondering—What else do we expect to hear in mid-September from our generals in Iraq other than “there is evidence of progress and we need more time”?
Since they will be evaluating the implementation of their own plan, how likely is it that they will say that it is not working?
In any other situation—business, education, medical research—in order to take the measure of the validity or effectiveness of a new program, strategy, or discover we would insist that the evaluation was carried out by an independent source.
The last “commander on the ground” who evaluated the effectiveness of his own strategy and got his commander in chief to go along with his conclusions was General Westmoreland in Vietnam. And we know how well that worked out.
A great mystery to me is not why President Bush, who is committed to “staying the course” would be awaiting the assessment from General Petraeus who will endorse that policy, by why the Democrats in Congress are being taken in by this.
Since they will be evaluating the implementation of their own plan, how likely is it that they will say that it is not working?
In any other situation—business, education, medical research—in order to take the measure of the validity or effectiveness of a new program, strategy, or discover we would insist that the evaluation was carried out by an independent source.
The last “commander on the ground” who evaluated the effectiveness of his own strategy and got his commander in chief to go along with his conclusions was General Westmoreland in Vietnam. And we know how well that worked out.
A great mystery to me is not why President Bush, who is committed to “staying the course” would be awaiting the assessment from General Petraeus who will endorse that policy, by why the Democrats in Congress are being taken in by this.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
8:22 AM
1 Comments:
Just because Democratic voters want US troops out of Iraq doesn't mean that Democratic politicians do. They're enjoying the slow bleed the war is inflicting on the Republicans. [The bleeding of the people getting killed in the meantime isn't factored in, of course.] And even if they might prefer, all things being equal, if we could have the oil without all the slaughter, we will have the oil regardless - make no mistake.
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